The Girl With The Knives
by C. Lizzy
Summary: Clove. Bloodthirsty, ruthless, maybe even crazy. But is this the true Clove? Read and find out!
1. Career

**First chapter, first story! It's kind of short, but the rest are much longer!**

I am a career. Not by choice, by force. Ever since I was old enough to walk, my parents have been brainwashing me into believing that being in the Hunger Games is such an honor and that one day, I will volunteer. Of course, I believe them. My little sister, Mari, however refuses to give in. For my parents and the rest of the world, she is a typical career child; bloodthirsty and ready to kill. For me, she is just an innocent, ten year old girl. I hate my parents for making her something she's not.

It's about a month before the reaping. To my parents, this is crunch time. Mari and I don't go to school, we go to training. The training is tough. Not that I care. Our trainer has a thing for knife throwing, so we do a lot of that. I picked it up quickly. Now, I never miss. Mari struggles with it though, and the trainer gets impatient.

"Mari! You missed again! You will do twenty push-ups for every time you miss!" the trainer, Jaylyse yells.

She's only ten! I want to yell. Mari does pretty well keeping up the tough girl mask, but she isn't perfect. A tear is rolling down her face as she throws a knife in to the arm of a target dummy. I hope she likes push-ups.

Five misses and one hundred push-ups later, I know I have to step in. As soon as I show Mari how to aim better, she starts hitting the dummy closer and closer to the target. Sometimes a big sister is more helpful than a screaming trainer.

At about ten o'clock at night, we are allowed to go home. Mari wants to stay up and eat something. I know I should stay awake and supervise her while she cooks, but exhaustion wins, and I make my way to my bedroom. It only takes seconds for me to fall asleep.


	2. Worst Day Ever

**Much longer chapter! Please review!**

It's really hot in here. Not like summer heat hot, but like burning hot. Something isn't right. The smell of smoke hits me like a ton of bricks and my eyes fly open. What I see shocks me. Everything is on fire.

"Mari!" I scream. She doesn't seem to hear me even though she's only feet away from me. "Mari wake up!" her eyes barely flutter open. She tries to say something, but only manages a small croak. I know she will die soon if I don't get her out. Without thinking, I toss the window open, grab Mari, and climb out.

My feet hit the ground, and I lay Mari down with her head in my lap. Her eyes are closed again and her body is covered in burns.

The peacekeepers arrive to put the fire out. It only takes them a few minutes. After the fire is out, three go in to find my parents, and one comes to tend to Mari and me. She sees no injuries on me, but Mari needs to be taken to a hospital to treat her burns. They refuse to let me go with her.

"Please, you have to let me go," I beg.

"For the last time, no," the peacekeeper says.

"I'm all she has left," I argue. "You have to let me go."

"Let her go," the peacekeeper says, throwing her hands up in the air.

The hospital is a frightening place. Everything is white. Blindly white. And it smells heavily of cleaner. I'm taken to a waiting area while the doctor evaluates Mari.

After what feels like years, a man dressed in all white comes in the room and takes me to a small room with only two seats. This can't be good. It looks like the room we were taken to when my grandfather died. Panic sets in. Is he about to tell me Mari is dead? I wonder.

"Just so you know, your sister is alive," the doctor says answering the question I asked in my mind. I let out a huge sigh of relief. But what am I here for? "I am Doctor Watson," the doctor says. "And you are?"

"Clove Grygiel,"

"Well Miss Clove, as much as I hate to tell you this, your parents did not make it," Doctor Watson says. Actually, it's kind of a relief to know they're dead. "This leaves you as the elder. However, you are not legally old enough to take care of your sister on your own, so you will be placed with another family until you are." He says.

"What family will we be placed with?" I venture to ask, although I'm not sure if I want to know the answer.

"The Apker family."

"The Apkers?" Of all families we could've been placed with, we had to get placed with the Apkers. Their son, Cato, scares me. Especially since I sometimes catch him looking at me at school. The last thing I want to do is live with him.

"Yes, they will be here in about an hour to take you home."

"No. I'm not leaving my sister."

"I think we can arrange that," Doctor Watson says with a small smile, and he walks out of the room, leaving me alone.

In the silence, the full effect of the conversation sets in. I have no parents. My sister is in a hospital. And we have to live with a new family. Not just a new family, the Apker family. The thought of it makes me want to gag. Before I can get overly emotional, Doctor Watson comes back to lead me to my sister's room. Mari is sound asleep under a web of tubes. Beside her bed is a small cot with a pillow and a thick blanket. Doctor Watson leaves and tells me that the Apkers will arrive shortly. As soon as the door closes, I sit down on Mari's bed. Even in her peaceful, drug induced sleep, she flinches when I touch her hand. I knew her burns were bad, but not nearly this bad. As I watch her slow, even breathing, tears start to roll down my cheek.

A knock on the door snaps me out of my own little world. I barely have enough time to compose myself before four people, a man, a woman, a boy around Mari's age, and a tall, muscular boy who I recognize as Cato walk in.

"Hi, you must be Clove," the woman says. I give a slight nod in response. "I'm Mrs. Apker, this is my husband and my two sons, Mylo and Cato," Mylo smiles and waves, Cato just nods his head.

"Today must have been a long day," Mr. Apker says. "I understand you will be staying here tonight." I nod. "We will give you some privacy," he says, and he motions for his family to leave. Cato whispers something to his parents, and then turns back around as his parents and brother walk out. Great. Now I'm stuck in a room with Cato.

"Hi," Cato says. I refuse to respond

After a few minutes of silence, Cato says "Look, we're going to have to get along, so you might as well deal with it." For the first time, I look straight into his icy blue eyes. I expect to see anger, or hatred, or annoyance at the very least. Instead, I see genuine compassion. Seeing the compassion in his eyes brings tears to my eyes. No matter how hard I try, I can't keep them from spilling over.

"I'm sorry, Clove," Cato says in a soft voice.

"Just go home. I don't want to talk to you," I snap at him.

"What's going on?" a fragile voice says. It's Mari. Oh great. How am I going to explain this one? "Who are you?" Mari says, looking past me and at Cato. I take a deep breath and begin the explanation.

"There was a fire. Mom and Dad died. We live with the Apker family now. This is Cato Apker." I say quickly. Mari burst into tears. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry," I whisper to her quietly.

"It was all my fault," Mari chokes out. "I left the stove on."

"It was an accident, it's okay,"

"But I killed mom and dad."

"I should've stayed up and supervised you, so technically, it's my fault." Mari buries her face in my shirt. I'm trying to keep it together for her, but I'm losing control rapidly. I have to get out of this room, even if it's only for a minute. That would be enough time to pull myself together, but I can't leave Mari alone. There is Cato. He might be willing to sit with her for a few minutes.

"I'll be right back," I whisper to Mari. When I stand up, I mouth the words _sit with her_ to Cato. He nods, and I walk out the door. There is a chair just outside of Mari's room. It's uncomfortable, but what choice do I have? I bury head in my hands and close my eyes.

It takes about five minutes for me to regain full control of my emotions. When I walk back in, I expect to see Mari still crying. Instead, I see Cato sitting where I was and Mari smiling. What in the world did I miss?

"Clove!" Mari says happily. She taps the other side of the bed. I unwillingly sit down, uncomfortable with the closeness to Cato, but if Mari wants me here, I'll sit here.

"What did I miss?" I ask, attempting to sound happy.

"Nothing!" Mari says giggling.

"I don't believe you. What were you doing?"

"We were talking…"

"About what?"

"You,"

I definitely didn't expect this. "Alright, what did she tell you?" I ask Cato.

"Let's see, she said told me about a time that you brought home a snake and put it in your parents' bed." He says.

"Oh, great. Mari, you're going to pay for that," I say, giving Mari a fake evil look. She giggles at that. "What else did she say?"

"Oh, she said a lot of terrible things like how nice you are, how brave you are, how strong you are," Cato says.

"How rude…" I say teasingly. "Anything else?"

"She mentioned that you're really good at throwing knives."

"I'm okay."

"Come on, Clove," Mari says. "You never miss."

"I do too miss,"

"No you don't. Don't underestimate yourself."

"Whatever,"

"Oh wow, I really should be getting home," Cato says. He tells us goodbye and walks out the door. Did I really just have a conversation with him? It wasn't that bad.

"I like him, he's nice," Mari says.

"That's good, because we're living with him for the next three years," I don't want to admit it, but I kind of like him, too. Not _like_, like, but friend-like.


	3. New Day, New Trainer

**Please review!**

After three days, Mari is starting to look like her old self again. Walking is still a struggle, but she can carry on a conversation, and is getting to know her new family. Cato treats her like any big brother would treat a little sister, and Mari is comfortable being her true self around him. Mr. and Mrs. Apker adore her, and I think Mylo has a little crush on her. Every day, Mylo brings her fresh wildflowers. It's kind of cute. The doctors say that Mari will be able to go home soon.

It's about six o'clock at night, time for the Apkers to leave. Right before they walk out, the door flies open and a very angry Jaylyse walks in.

"You!" she shouts pointing in my direction. "Where have you been? You know you have training young lady!"

"But my sister…"

"'But my sister' nothing. I don't care if your parents are dead or not. You have obligations!"

To my surprise, Mr. Apker cuts in. "Jaylyse! This is no way to be treating her!" he shouts. All the color runs out of Jaylyse's face.

"Oh no… I'm so sorry… I didn't mean,"

"You will no longer be a trainer at my training facility! You're fired!" Is Mr. Apker the owner of the training center?

"What! But who will be their trainer?"

"I will. Now get out!" Mr. Apker literally shoves Jaylyse out the door. He gives her a few minutes to leave, and then he and his family walk out, leaving me alone with a stunned looking Mari. I hate that she had to see that. Neither of us knows what to say. I sit with her until she falls asleep, which isn't long. Then I slowly go over to my cot and try to sleep.

The next day, I expect the Apkers to come at ten o'clock as they usually do, but instead, only Cato comes. He has a concerned look on his face.

"What's wrong?" I ask.

"I need to talk to you. In private." He says with a tone of urgency. We walk out of the room. "I have to warn you about my parents."

"What about them?"

"They are extremely tough trainers and I'm worried about Mari."

"Oh, she'll be fine. I'll just tell your dad that she doesn't want to train and I'll ask him not to make her train. He seems pretty understanding."

"Not when it comes to training. As long she lives under his roof, she will train."

"She can handle it. Jaylyse was really tough."

"You don't understand. We go to school, Mylo trains until midnight, I train three hours later by myself, starting two months before the reaping, and we do all our schooling on the weekend, and train all day." Now I'm starting to get worried. Will Mari be able to handle it? I hoped that I had finally found a way to get Mari out of training, but it's only going to be worse. I have to find a way to get her out of this.

"We should really get back to Mari," I say in an effort to break up the conversation.

"Yeah," Cato says. Mari was still asleep when we left the room, but when we get back in, Mari is wide awake.

"Where were you?" she asks suspiciously.

"Nowhere," Cato and I say in unison. Mari looks at us suspiciously, knowing we were doing something, but she doesn't question it. Cato gives Mari the flowers Mylo sent for her. Mari giggles and adds them to the vase by her bed. Cato and I do our best to keep Mari in a good mood. We put on our best happy face even though both of us are deeply concerned about Mari. I can tell Mari knows that something is wrong, but she never asks. Doctors come in and out throughout the day, each one giving Mari a different medicine, doing different tests, telling me stuff I really don't need or want to know.

Finally, a doctor delivers the news that I've been waiting for. We can take Mari home today. The doctor wants us to wait until Mr. and Mrs. Apker come, but I object, and they agree to let Cato and I take her back. They put her in a wheel chair and send us on our way.


	4. Changing Feelings

**This is my favorite chapter out of what I've written. Please review!**

I thought that Mari would get a few days of rest before she had to get to training. Wrong. Very, very wrong. As soon as Cato and I walk in the door, we are told that Mari and I will start training tomorrow. I don't even know what to say. How could they do that to her? She can hardly walk, let alone pick up a weapon.

As soon as we eat dinner, Mari and I are shown our room. They try to make me go to training, but after objections from both me and Cato, they agree to give me one night to sleep. Mari looks like she wants to cry. I hold her tight until she falls asleep. Then I gently lay her down under the heavy blanket and crawl in beside her. No matter how hard I try, I can't fall asleep. There's far too much to think about, like how I'm going to get Mari out of training.

Before the sun has begun to rise, there is a loud knock on the door. Is it already time for training? I have to yell Mari's name three times before she wakes up. It dawns on me that we don't have any clothes other than the ones we're wearing. When I turn the lights on, I find two outfits laid out. For Mari, there is a blue tee shirt, a pair of shorts, and a pair of tennis shoes. For me, there is a dark purple tank top, a pair of ridiculously short shorts, and tennis shoes. I help Mari into her outfit, and then I get dressed myself. I can't believe they are making me wear this. Cato and I get along and all but, I don't want to wear a tank top around. There's not much choice though.

When Mari and I meet the rest of the family at the table, I can immediately see that Cato is distracted. I want to run back to my room and lock myself in, but that's not an option. It's really annoying having him look at me every time he thinks I'm not looking.

We only get five minutes for breakfast, and then we're off to training. I assumed we were going to the same training center I've gone to for the past ten years, but it turns out the Apkers have a whole training room below their house. It's unlike anything I've seen before. There's a whole archery range, spear throwing, sword fighting, weight lifting, survival skills, and even moving targets for knife throwing.

"Alright, we need to get to know your strengths. Clove, you start. Show us everything." Mr. Apker says. Of course, I head straight over to the knife throwing area. I can feel everyone staring intensely at me. The targets start moving and I loose myself in throwing the knives. It only takes fifteen seconds for me to knock every target down. I turn to see everyone's reaction. Mari doesn't look surprised, Mylo looks intimidated, Mr. and Mrs. Apker look pleased, and Cato looks stunned. I walk back to where they are standing.

"Nice job, Clove. Your turn, Mari," Mrs. Apker says. I hold my breath. I don't know what Mari will do. To my surprise, she slowly walks over to the survival skills area. She quickly names every berry in a book and if they are safe to eat, she sets a snare that would leave an opponent dangling by their leg, she sets a fire with only sticks and moss, and she is able to scale a fairly tall, fake tree in just seconds. I had no idea she could do any of that. Mr. and Mrs. Apker don't look impressed.

"Is that all?" Mr. Apker asks. Mari nods nervously. "Okay, so no combat skills." He sighs. "Great. Lora, work with Mylo, I'll work with Mari. Cato, Clove, you two work together." Ugh. As much as I don't want to work with one of the Apker adults, I want to work with Cato less. Not that I don't like Cato, but I swear if he stares at me for one more minute I'll use him for target practice. Cato wants me to give him lessons in knife throwing, so I agree. He's okay at it, but not nearly as good as me. I'm giving him some advice on how to aim better when I notice him staring at me again.

"Would you quit that?" I ask exasperatedly.

"Quit what?" he asks innocently.

"Staring at me like that."

"Sorry, it's just… you look really pretty."

I'm not sure how to react to that. My first instinct is to throw the knife I'm gripping in my hand at him. But something deep inside me is telling me to say something back to him. I feel my cheeks turning red. "Th-thanks," I say quietly. Now I want to slap myself. I could've said something a whole lot better than that. To avoid any further awkward conversation, I pick up where I left off on the advice I was giving him and act like nothing happened.

"Mari! Are you an idiot? I told you to hit the target not the wall!" Mr. Apker screams. Cato and I both whip around to see what's going on. Mari is at the archery station struggling to hold up a bow and arrow. She shoots, and misses the target completely. Tears start to roll down her cheek. Mr. Apker grabs her by the shoulder and slaps her across the face. This makes me furious. Nobody treats my sister that way. I storm over to the archery station and completely lose my temper.

"How dare you!" I screech at Mr. Apker. "How dare you hit my sister? I cannot believe you had the nerve to treat her that way! You better not do that again or I swear I'll-" I'm cut off mid-sentence by a pull backward. I look back and I see Cato is pulling me away. I start kicking and screaming unthinkable things at both Cato and Mr. Apker, but Cato doesn't put me down until we're back in my room.

"I am so sorry about that. What my father did was completely uncalled for." he says.

"What I did was uncalled for, too." I whisper quietly.

"I would've done the same thing if he hit Mylo. I almost did when he hit Mari, too. I warned you that they were brutal,"

"I had no idea that they were this brutal,"

"Are you ready to go back?"

"Better sooner than later."

When we get back to the training center, Mr. Apker looks delighted to see me again. Not. I just pretend that nothing happened and go back to training. This time, I take some sword fighting lessons from Cato. I can hardly pick the sword up, while Cato can slice up practice dummy in thirty seconds flat. After about an hour, it's clear sword fighting isn't my forte, so we try spear throwing, which Cato and I both excel at.

We go around to the various stations, staying at each one for about an hour. Before I know it, it's midnight. Mr. Apker, Mrs. Apker, and Mylo start walking toward the door. Mari starts to follow them, assuming training is over, but Mr. Apker blocks her from the door.

"Oh no, you're not going anywhere," he says. "You're going to stay here until three with Cato and Clove." and with that, he slams door. Mari immediately runs to me with tears running down her face. I sit her down on the floor and let her lay her head in my lap while she cries. Cato sits down next to us and gently rubs Mari's back. For the first time, I can see the mark left by Mr. Apker's hand. There is a clear red hand print across her face. Seeing that only makes me angrier. I hate Mr. Apker for hitting her, for forcing her to train, and most of all, for even agreeing to let us live with him. I hate him with all my heart.

Eventually, Mari cries herself to sleep. I gently pick her up and lay her down so Cato and I can continue training. The training room seems so empty with only three people in it. It's almost too quiet. The training is different, too. In a good way. It's nice knowing that nobody will yell at you when you don't expect it. We try to keep quiet so we don't wake up Mari. I don't think anything could wake her up now, though. Cato and I do pretty much the same thing we did all day, but we focus less on training and more on getting to know each other better.

"How old are you?" Cato asks.

"Sixteen." I answer.

"Eighteen," Cato says.

"What's your favorite color?"

"Blue,"

"Purple,"

We go on and on asking each other random things that don't really matter. As the minutes pass by, it gets harder and harder to come up with questions. After about an hour, we start asking more personal questions. The questions are harder to answer, but I get to know Cato a lot better. There's one question that's been nagging me ever since the first time I met Cato.

"Are you in love with me?" I blurt out before I can stop myself. My cheeks immediately turn bright red. I look down at my feet to try to hide it.

"Yes," Cato answers quietly.

I'm not sure if this was the answer I wanted. How do I react? What should I say? The annoying voice in the back of my head is practically screaming at me not to listen to what my heart is telling me do. But I listen to my heart. I look directly into Cato's eyes and say, "I love you, too."


	5. Goodbye

**There will be some action eventually… **

For weeks, we have the same schedule. Wake up, eat breakfast, go to training, go to bed, and every night, Cato and I sit with Mari while she cries herself to sleep. The only thing different is how Cato and I act. We try hard to keep our budding relationship a secret from everyone else, but they're getting suspicious.

One night, after we leave Mari to sleep, another question pops into my head. And this question worries me. I have to know the answer.

"Cato, are you going to volunteer?" I ask quietly. Cato, who is about to throw a spear, drops the spear and sinks down to the floor. He buries his head in his hands and doesn't answer me. I sit next to him and put my arm around him. "Please, Cato, I need to know."

"My dad... He's forcing me to. He threatened to throw me out on the street if I don't. I'm so sorry." he answers.

"It's okay. You'll win. I know you will."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure. Isn't that what you've worked your whole life for?"

"Yeah. What about you?"

"Not this year. Mari needs me to be here. I might volunteer eventually though."

"If there was any way out of this I'd take it. But I can't live on the street alone,"

"You wouldn't have to. I'd go with you."

"What about Mari?"

"Hmm... Don't think she'd do too well on the street."

"I don't want to think about this right now. Can we get back to training?" I agree. Cato's going to need every ounce of training he can get. There's only a week until the reaping.

Sleep. Eat. Train. Mari. Train. Repeat. I don't know how much more of this I can take. It takes Mari a little bit longer to cry herself out every night, and every second longer she cries adds to my pain. Some nights, I get pretty close to my breaking point. Tonight, the night before the reaping, I reach it. As soon as Mari falls asleep, I lose it. I cry just like Mari does every night. Cato lifts Mari off of my lap and lays her down in the same place we always do. Then, he sits back down beside me and pulls my head into his lap. I don't object. Right now I feel helpless and hopeless. This must be how Mari feels every night. Cato gently strokes my hair. If his parents were to come in now, we'd be in unimaginable trouble. That's the least of my worries. I'm worried about Cato and how he will do in the arena, and I'm worried about how I'm going to deal with training while he's gone.

It takes me about an hour to cry myself out. By then, we only have one more hour of training left. Cato wants to work with the weapons more, but I insist on working on survival skills. We've only been there for about two hours total, and if Cato wants to win, he needs to learn how to survive, not just kill. Turns out, he's already pretty good at it. What did I expect? I'm terrible at it though and he ends up teaching me everything. By three o'clock, I'm a pro at survival skills. Cato helps me get Mari to the room because my muscles are too sore to lift her. He lays Mari in the bed, tucks her in, and gets up to leave. I stop him before he can leave. I run over to him and fling my arms around him, knowing our time together is quickly dwindling away. He leans down and kisses my forehead, sending a warm, tingly feeling through my veins. When we pull away, I can see by the light of the moon that Cato is holding back tears. I want to cry, but that would make this harder on him. I give his hand one last squeeze, and tell him goodnight, although it feels more like a goodbye.


	6. Unexpected

"Welcome children of District Two!" the escort, Vivi Sopora, says. Most of the other sixteen year old girls surrounding me have the same excited look to them. I try to mimic their expression as best as I can, but the sadness I'm feeling inside is threatening to show. "Ladies first!" Vivi says excitedly. "Clove Grygiel!"

Some people say that when you're dying, you see your whole life flash before your eyes. This is what is happening now. Sixteen years go before me in a matter of seconds. I put on the most proud, excited face I can. People around me clear a path for me to walk onto the stage. My mind is telling me to run. Run back home and crawl under a bed where no one will find me. But I know it is my duty to go onto the stage where surely some girl will want to take my place. But I have no such luck. The one year I wanted a volunteer, no one does.

"Ah, isn't she a pretty one!" Vivi says. "And now for the boys." I try to look excited as my opponent is chosen, even though I know my best friend is going to be my partner. I don't even see the first boy who gets picked, I only see Cato, looking stunning in a blue shirt and khaki pants, taking his place. We give each other fake looks of hatred as we shake hands. Then, we are escorted to the justice building where we will say our goodbyes.

Not surprisingly, Mari is my first visitor. She sits next to me on the velvet couch and leans on my shoulder. I can tell she's trying to keep it together, and she is doing miraculously well. I'm not sure how to start off this conversation.

"Well, what do you think about this? Your sister and almost brother in the games," I say, trying to sound excited, but I only make things worse. Mari starts to cry. "Don't cry, Mari." this only makes her cry harder. Now I'm on the verge of tears. "Please don't cry."

"I can't do it. I can't keep training. Not without you." Mari says through her tears.

"I know. You have to promise me you'll be strong until one of us gets home," Mari starts crying even harder. Everything I say is wrong.

"I can't! What if he hits me again?"

"Don't worry, that won't happen again. I promise." In truth, I can't promise her anything, but I'll do anything to comfort her now.

"You have to win, Clove." she says looking me straight in the eyes, "Promise me you'll win."

"I promise," The peacekeeper comes to take Mari away. She holds on to me with a vice grip. I have to pry her off of me. The peacekeepers have to drag her out the door. I hope I don't get any more visitors.

Of course, Mr. and Mrs. Apker come through the door. I'm actually glad they came because I have some important business to tend to with them.

"Mr. Apker," I start off. "I need to ask you a huge favor."

"Okay," Mr. Apker replies.

"I want to ask for you to let up on Mari's training."

"Excuse me? Do you really think I would let her quit? If you do, you're wrong."

"Please! She just came to me crying! Do you know why? Not because her sister has a twenty-three out of twenty-four chance of dying. She was crying because she was scared of you."

"Too bad. She will continue her training as usual whether you like it or not."

"At least go easy on her. Let her go to bed at midnight."

"Not going to happen. In fact, I will make her volunteer at age twelve."

"No! Please don't! I'll do anything! Go harder on her! Just don't make her volunteer!"

"I will! This visit is over. Come on Lora." He storms out of the room and his wife follows, leaving me with another half an hour of visiting time left. I know I will have no more visitors. My only friend is in another room saying his goodbyes.

Vivi finally comes to get me out of the tiny room. Cato is with her already. I can tell he hasn't lost control of his emotions. There are tons of cameras following us as we make our way to the train. I know all of Panem will be watching, so I give the cameras my most deadly smirk and never even glance in Cato's direction. I desperately want to hold onto his hand for dear life, but appearing in love would make me look weak, and looking weak would get me overlooked by my competitors.

The doors of the train shut behind us and I want to go find my bedroom and lock myself in it until morning. Unfortunately, Vivi has other plans. She shows us around every corner of the whole train before we are allowed to eat dinner. Cato and I sit next to each other. There are two empty seats across from us that must be for our mentors. I wonder who we will get this year. My question is answered when two women walk in. I recognize one of them as Enobaria because of her sharpened gold-tipped teeth, the other woman I think is Lyza Thurman, the winner of the 70th games. She wasn't a great fighter, but she sure knew how to get sponsors. She had a natural beauty that would've won over many sponsors anyway, but between her amazing stylists, high training scores, and charming interview, she got nearly all of the sponsors Panem had to offer. They were all but killing the other tributes for her. I couldn't think of a better pair to have.

"First of all, we need to get to know your strengths. Cato, you start." Lyza says.

"Well, I'm pretty good with a sword I guess," Cato says.

"Pretty good? Cato, you're amazing. Don't underestimate yourself," I say.

"What about you, Clove?" Lyza asks.

"I'm good with a knife," I say.

"She never misses," Cato adds.

"Looks like we should've asked them to describe the other person talent," Enobaria says to Lyza. "How do you two know each other so well?"

"Well... You see..." Cato starts.

"My parents died. His family took me and my sister in. We trained together. I'm going to bed." I say. I all but run to my room. I can't hold myself together much longer. As soon as I slam the door behind me, I run to my bed, grab a pillow, and cry.

A few minutes later, there is a knock on my door, but I ignore it. The person knocks again a few seconds later. "Clove, I know you're in there," Cato's voice says. I can't ignore him. I walk over to the door and let him in. He can tell I'm upset and walks me back to the bed where I lay down, and he sits beside me. "What's wrong?" he asks.

"Your dad. He told me he'd make Mari volunteer at age twelve," I say with my face buried in a pillow.

"Oh no... Clove, I'm so sorry. I don't even know what to say,"

"One of us has to win. For Mari's sake."

"We'll try."

"No, we have to. I can't let Mari die. Promise?"

"Promise," He gets up to walk out, but I catch his hand and pull him back.

"Stay here?" I ask him.

"Okay," he says. He sits back down on the bed and holds my hand. "Oh, I almost forgot," he reaches into the pocket of his shirt and pull out a necklace with a heart on it. He opens up the heart, which is a locket, and reveals a picture of Mari and me hugging each other in a rare moment of non- training. He fastens the locket around my neck. "For your district token,"

"Thank you," is all I can say. This gesture brings a tear to my eye, but I quickly blink it away. For the first time, I remember I'm still in a long white dress the Apkers gave to me. I don't really want to get up, but I have to get out of this dress. I grab the first two things I see in a dresser full of clothes and put them on. Now that I'm in something far more comfortable, I lay back down beside Cato. He takes my hand again and smiles.

"We should probably go back in there now. Don't want the girls getting suspicious." he says.

"Go ahead. Tell them I feel sick or something," I say.

"Okay. I'll see you tomorrow. Try to get some sleep." he gives my hand one last squeeze and walks out. The room seems so empty and quiet without him. I hold on to the heart locket, close my eyes, and quickly drift off.


	7. Sacrifice

**I will add somemore this afternoon! Please review what I have so far. If you have any suggestions, please tell me!**

"Everyone up!" Vivi calls. I do not want to get up. I'm still exhausted even though I've gotten more sleep than I've gotten in the past month. Eventually, I make myself get up. I grab a halfway decent looking outfit from the dresser and head to the bathroom. When I look in the mirror, I jump back. I look like a mess. I have no choice but to take a shower, which I feel like I haven't done in weeks. As soon as I'm done, I dry my hair, quickly put it up in a ponytail like I always do, jump into my outfit, and head to the dining car. When I step into the dining room, everyone stops what they're doing and stares at me.

"You're late," Enobaria says.

"Do I look like I care?" I snap at her. She only responds by raising one eyebrow and shaking her head. Breakfast looks delicious, but I think I'll throw up if I try to eat.

"Feeling better, Clove?" Lyza asks with a sort of sinister-sweet smile.

"What?" Oh man, I just messed up.

Lyza looks at Enobaria, and then says, "That's what I thought." Do they know about us being in love? I hope not. "We're almost at the Capitol. This is the first time the citizens will see you in person, so put on a smile and wave. Look excited."

"Shouldn't be hard to look excited," Cato says.

"Yeah. Won't have to fake that," I say, even though I will have to fake it.

"Right," Lyza says in that voice that says she knows we aren't telling the truth. "We're pulling into the station in a few minutes. Go ahead up to the window." Cato and I obediantly walk up to the window. We take one look at each other, take a deep breath, and turn to look out the window.

The Capitol is an... interesting place, and not really in a good way. Everything is smothered in sickeningly bright pastels and some of the people don't even look human with all of their body alterations. People gather by the track and start jumping up and down and waving like little kids. Cato and I turn on our excited faces and wave back at the people. They clap and cheer as we walk to the training center where we will be staying until the games.

Finally, we make it through the hoards of people and into our apartment. Since we're the closest to the Capitol, we're the first tributes to arrive. Vivi gives us a quick tour of the apartment and then leaves us to do whatever we want, provided we stay in the apartment. Since no one else I around, Cato and I sit next to each other on the couch and Cato tells me about the reaping recap.

"The tributes from one look pretty strong, but we don't really need to worry about them because they'll probably want to be allies. None of the other tributes should pose much of a problem, except district eleven. The boy looks really strong, and I'm kind of worried about him. We may not be able to kill him," he says.

"Easy solution. We make an alliance, we keep him around as long as he's useful, then we kill him," I say.

"I like it. We'll talk to him at training."

"Anything else interesting?"

"Actually, there was a volunteer from twelve."

"Twelve? No way."

"Yeah! But it was just for her sister. No need to worry about her."

"Would you have volunteered for Mylo if he had gotten picked?"

"No, he wants to be in the games pretty badly. He'd never forgive me if I took his place. Would you have volunteered for Mari?"

"Without thinking twice. Mari wouldn't stand a chance in the arena."

"It's too bad victors can't volunteer. For when Mari..."

"Oh Mari won't be volunteering. One of us is going home and making sure she doesn't."

"But he still could make her volunteer. I know my dad, and if he says something is gong to happen, it will happen. He could threaten a whole lot worse than kicking her out,"

"Oh, Cato, you don't think he would..." I can't bear to get the words 'kill her' out, but by the look in Cato's eyes, I know he's filled in the blanks.

"Yes. He would. Even if one of us wins, it won't change anything." I can't say anything to this. No matter what, Mari will still be going into the games.

"Then maybe she'd be better off if I die," I whisper.

"No, if, no, when you win, you can live with just Mari, if I win, I'm kind of obligated to take my whole family with me. I'd take Mari, too. At least you could offer her some protection from my dad."

"Do you honestly think I'll make it home?"

"Yes. I'm going to get you home. Some how, I'll get you back." This makes me feel awful. Cato just told me he was going to die to get me home. I'm not going to let him do that though.

"Don't sacrifice yourself for me, Cato. Your family loves you. They would be devastated if you died."

"But they don't need me. Mari needs you."

"I know, but I can't bear to think about you dying for me," Cato offers me his hand and I graciously take it. I lean my head on his shoulder, and we sit like this in silence for hours. It isn' t until Lyza, Enobaria, and Vivi walk in for dinner that we snap back to our senses.

"What were you two doing?" Lyza asks suspiciously.

"Nothing!" Cato and I reply in unison. Lyza and Enobaria look at each other and laugh.

Dinner is delicious. I eat more than I've ever eaten. By the time desert comes, I can't hold another bite, but the chocolate mousse is irresistible. I immediately end up regretting eating it though because I feel like I'm going to throw everything up. It was worth it though.

Cato and I are told to go to bed. We have a big day with our stylists tomorrow. I'm dreading it though. I don't care much for makeovers.


	8. Outshined

**Sorry it took so long to post this!**

"Hi, Clove! It's so nice to meet you!" one of my stylists says. I know the Capitol is strange, but my stylists are absolute freak show. There's Jolee, who has curly hot pink hair, tie dye patterned skin, and sparkly blue lipstick, Mero, who is short and bald with a huge red mustache, horns coming out of his head, and a tail that sticks out his pants, Pashal, who wears at least one ring on every finger, has leaves tattooed everywhere on his body, and dark green hair arranged into long, curled strands that stick off of his head, and finally there's my head stylist, Harmony. Got to love Harmony. The best way I can describe her is fish-like. Her entire body has scales in every color of the rainbow carved into it, her hair is wavy and dark blue with flecks of orange scattered around it, even her mouth is pursed up like a fish, which slurs her speech dramatically. The strangest thing is that she has whiskers like a cat. Her sister Melody is Cato's stylist. They may have been identical twins at some point, but they have so many body alterations that you would never even know they were related.

After hours upon hours of shampooing, conditioning, waxing, rinsing, etc., Harmony dismisses my stylists. My skin is still burning despite the cream they put on me that was supposed to get rid of it. Harmony inspects me like I'm a piece of meat. It's really irritating.

"Everything looks good, but I want to cut your hair," she says.

"No, you are not getting near my hair with a pair of scissors." If there is one part of my body I'm protective of, it's my hair.

"Clove, sweetheart, it's almost two feet long. Just six inches, that's all I'm asking,"

"No. And don't call me sweetheart."

"Six inches. That's all,"

"No,"

"Ugh, fine. You win. But don't blame me when you're burning hot in the arena. Now put this on." Harmony tosses me a dress. She politely turns around while I put the thing on. Then, she hands me a pair of gold sandals. They aren't heels, thank goodness. I hate heels. She puts the final touches on my makeup, places a thing in my head, and walks me to a mirror. I don't recognize the person I see in the mirror, but it must be me. The top of my dress is gold and the bottom is off white, the shoes are the same color as the top of my dress, and the head piece is a gold helmet with a wing on either side. I look strong and deadly but beautiful at the same time.

"Wow," I say. What else could I say?

"Pretty spectacular isn't it?" Harmony says. "It's time for you to head to the opening ceremonies. Let's go find the others."

It doesn't take long to find Cato and Melody. Cato looks absolutely stunning. His outfit is very similar to mine; in fact, he's wearing a dress, which makes me laugh. It still looks good though. We can't take our eyes off each other. I think I hear someone say my name, but I don't look to see if I really do.

"Hey! Snap out of it!" Enobaria says, Cato and I both snap our heads to look at her. She and Lyza bust out laughing. Vivi clears her throat, reminding them that we're on a schedule. We head down to the place where we wait along with the other tributes. While we walk, Lyza and Enobaria give us the run down on the ceremonies.

"There are two approaches you can take to the ceremonies," Lyza says. "Your first choice is to smile and wave, get the crowd excited."

"Your second choice is to appear above it all. Arrogant, strong, deadly," Enobaria says, and adds in a quieter voice, "I'd recommend option two."

"But it's up to you two. We're going to go now. Have fun!" Lyza says.

"You're going to outshine them all." Harmony says before she leaves.

We're the only tributes there at the moment, so I take the moment to talk to Cato. "You look really good," I say.

"Are you kidding? I'm in a dress! You look way better."

"Thanks. Trust me, you don't look stupid."

"That's good to know. I think District One is coming."

"Do we want them as allies?"

"Are you saying you want me as an ally?"

"Was there ever any question?"

"Yeah, we'll keep tradition. We'll take district four, too."

"And eleven."

"Just the boy. The girl is weak."

"Okay, that's settled. One, four, and eleven."

"Should we ask them now?"

"Nah, wait for training."

The district one tributes look like some kind of sick joke. The boy is wearing a sparkly silver suit with a purple-ish cape, and the girl is wearing a sparkly silver dress and a purple-ish feathery headpiece. I feel bad for the boy; no one will even see him through that mammoth headpiece. As the other tributes file in, I realize that the district one tributes are better dress than most of the others. District eleven is in white shirts and overalls. That's probably worse than what they wear in their dump of a district. Finally, someone tells us to get into our chariots. District one's starts to roll, and ours starts shortly afterward. Harmony is right; we're going to outshine everyone. Well, except district one, the reflection off of their costume could literally outshine us.

Our chariot rolls through the door and the cheers from the audience doubles. People chant our names, and throw flowers. We never agreed to our approach to the ceremonies, so judging by the fact that Cato is smiling and waving, I think he's gone with working the crowd. I do that same, waving, blowing kisses, pumping my fist in the air victoriously.

Right as we stop, the audience falls silent for a moment. Then, they start cheering their heads off. I'm guessing that district twelve should've just rolled in. Surely they weren't cheering for them. They're only wearing ugly black suits to match their ugly black district. I catch a glimpse of something shiny on a metal column. It's not like district one shiny, but it's like fire. That's ridiculous, nobody could be on…

Yes. They can be on fire.

As district twelve rolls into position, I see why the crowd fell silent. They are on fire. FIRE! This is absolutely crazy. How could they be on fire? No. How dare they be on fire? They have outshined us in more ways than one. And I don't like it.

President Snow steps onto his pedestal and his eyes immediately go to the flaming brats from twelve. Not only are his eyes on them, but every eye in the audience. Everyone who is a possible sponsor now has their eyes trained on those stupid fireballs. I do my best to keep my composure, but I want more than anything to give both of them a slow, painful death. Right here, right now. I'd be extra slow on the girl, so her weakling of a sister can enjoy every moment of her agony.

_What if that was Mari? _I think in the back of my mind. It gives me a pang of guilt for wanting to kill the girl slowly, but one look at their fire erases it.

_Congratulation, twelve, you've just moved to the top of my kill list._


	9. Glimmer vs Clove

The loathing I feel for those fireballs is overwhelming, but at least I make an effort to conceal it. Cato on the other hand, is looking at them like they're a piece of meat and giving them a death glare at the same time, if that's even possible. Their drunk of a mentor turns the no-longer flaming tributes away and all but shoves them toward the elevators. Cato's eyes never leave them, and after they go up the elevator, he still keeps his eyes on the elevator.

"Cato," Enobaria says. He doesn't seem to hear her.

"Earth to Cato," Lyza says. He still keeps his eyes on the elevator. She waves her hand in front of his face. Still, his eyes never move. I clap my hands loudly in front of his face. Finally, he pulls his head back and blinks a few times. We all look at him like he's crazy.

"What?" he says.

"Never mind," I say dismissively.

"Why don't we… head up to the room," Vivi says.

Back in the room, Cato is more agitated than before. If anyone tries to say something, he cuts them off with the same piece-of-meat-death glare he gave the fire idiots after the ceremonies.

"Your outfits looked-" Harmony tries to say. Cut off by death glare.

"Are you guys-" Enobaria starts. Cut off by death glare.

"We have an early-" Vivi attempts. Cut off by death glare. I refuse to let myself be cut off.

"Cut it out Cato, we know you're mad, just let us finish our sentences. It's not our fault they were on fire," I say.

"Not anyone's fault? Really? Harmony and Melody could've, no, should've come up with that. WHY WEREN'T WE ON FIRE?" Cato yells.

"Um… let's see… It doesn't make sense," Melody says.

"Well you should've made it make sense," Cato says, and then he storms out.

"That was a bit much," Lyza says after we hear Cato's door slam shut.

"I'll say," Melody says.

"You should probably get to bed, too. We've got to be up extra early to discuss training," Enobaria says.

I fall quickly into an uneasy sleep. My dreams are filled with fire. Most of them are about being consumed by a ring of fire. Others are about me putting out a fire. I'm assuming they mean I'm either being killed by the kids from twelve, or killing them. A few of the dreams are about slowly cutting up the girl and laughing as she bleeds to death. Not pleasant dreams for a sixteen year old girl, but to me, they're the best possible. Except the one about being consumed by fire, I can only hope it won't come true.

"Rise and shine! We've got a big day ahead!" Vivi shouts. It can't be later than six o'clock. How long does talking about training take?

I drag myself to the table, where apparently Lyza and Enobaria have already ordered us a carb and protein heavy breakfast. As soon as Cato arrives, which isn't long after I sit down, Lyza and Enobaria start throwing information at us.

"Intimidate the others, show off," Enobaria says.

"If you want to form a career alliance, make it now," Lyza says.

"Don't look afraid,"

"Even though you're not."

After a while I tune them out and try to eat as much as I can. By the time I'm full, there's still half a plate of food left, and Lyza and Enobaria are still going on.

"Got it?" one of them says.

"Yeah," I say drowsily.

"Uh huh," Cato mumbles. I can tell he hasn't been listening either.

"Good, now tell us everything we just told you," Lyza says.

"Well…"

"Uh…"

"That's what I thought. Now get your lazy butts down to training," Lyza says. Cato and I walk to the elevators with our heads low in both exhaustion and embarrassment.

We are the first pair of tributes to arrive, which aggravates me a little bit, since we could've slept just a little bit longer. District one arrives about fifteen minutes later. The girl keeps looking at Cato in the same way Cato used to look at me at school. I don't like it. The boy seems kind of happy-go-lucky. I could get along with him. In a sort of pet-like way. District four comes, and I'm rather disappointed in them. At least the girl looks like she could be of some kind of use, but the boy can't be any older than twelve and looks to be only about four and a half feet tall.

Slowly the rest of the tributes file in. The District eleven boy looks monstrous this close up. I hope he will ally with us. I'm sure we could take him, but I would rather not. His pathetic little district partner will be no problem to take out. The last to arrive are the fire idiots. Without the fire, they look a lot weaker and a lot less intimidating. No matter how much weaker they look, they aren't going to move off the top of my kill list.

The head trainer begins her speech. I don't really pay attention because none of it really matters. She finally sends us off to training and I naturally head straight for the knife throwing. A few more tributes line up behind me. _Good. _I think. _The more, the merrier. _

The targets light up and I hit each one perfectly every time. I turn to see the reaction of the others. Some of them back away slowly to other stations, others stand with their mouths agape. Perfect.

I look over to the sword fighting station and see the girl from one watching Cato slice up a target dummy with a look in her eyes that I can't place. _Hatred? _No. _Envy? _No. _Fear? _No. Finally, the word comes to mind. _Love. _

Oh no she didn't go there.

I drop the knife I'm holding a storm over to where she's standing.

"Cut it out," I say.

"I wasn't doing anything," she says innocently.

"Staring at him like a love struck fool? Yes you were."

"No, I wasn't. I was over here training like everyone else."

"Don't play dumb. Oh wait, you probably weren't playing,"

"You did not just go there,"

"Oh, I think I did,"

She gives me a hard shove. I come back at her with full force and knock her to the ground. I grab a sword and hold it over her.

"I'll kill you. Right here and now, I'll kill you."

That's when I feel someone yank me away from her. I see the white hand under my arm and I know it's a peacekeeper. He drags me to the other side of the gym and demands to know what happened.

"She was looking at my district partner like a starving kid looks at a chicken, and I didn't like it," I say.

"Alright, save it for the arena kid, now get back to training," the peacekeeper says.

You'd think threatening to kill a girl would knock some sense into her, but I guess her stupid, ditsy blonde brain didn't get the message. She continues to follow Cato around like a little puppy. I have to control my temper though. At least until we're in the arena. Then, she will be as good as dead.

At lunch, we meet up with the kids from one and four. I learn that the boy from one is named Marvel, the girl from one is Glimmer, the boy from four is Rascal, and the girl is Kyla. We eat at one table to show the others that we are a team.

"Alright, who's going to ask the District Eleven boy to be in the pack?" Cato asks. We simultaneously turn to look at the giant of a boy sitting in a corner by himself. Nobody volunteers. "Fine, I'll do it," Cato says. He walks over to the boy. We watch nervously. As he walks back, the boy doesn't follow.

"What did he say?" Glimmer asks cheerfully. We all turn and look at her like the dummy she is.

"Well, being that he didn't follow him, I would venture to say he said no," I say.

"That's a shame. Guess we'll have to kill him," she says. Cato is now sitting between the two of us. Glimmer is practically in his lap. She constantly bats her eyelashes, flips her hair, or does her annoying high pitched giggle. Ugh. She makes me sick. I scowl at her.

"Oooh, Clove's jealous," she says teasingly.

"Don't push it," I say.

"Clove's got a boyfriend, Clove's got a boyfriend," she chants over and over.

"Knock it off!" I shout at her. She quits her chant, but she continues to give me an arrogant smirk.

"Maybe we should discuss our strengths ," Cato says while giving Glimmer a good natured push in the other direction. "Marvel, you start."

"I'm good with a spear," he says.

"Good, Glimmer,"

"I can shoot a bow and arrow," she says.

_Sure you can, _I think.

"Clove,"

"I can throw knives," I say.

"Rascal,"

"I'm pretty good with a trident," he says confidently.

"Kyla,"

"I…I'm not very good with weapons, but I know how to heal," she says quietly.

"And I can sword fight. We've got a good start. Everyone but Rascal, Kyla, and Glimmer work on survival skills, you three, learn how to use a weapon."

We're called back to training and Cato and I both head over to the edible plants station. Glimmer, who's standing at the archery station, glares at me.

"Nice move, sending her to do weapons," I whisper to Cato.

"I know, right. I thought she'd never leave me alone," he whispers back. I watch Glimmer shoot a few arrows and it's clear that she was lying about being able to use a bow. She only comes close to hitting the third ring once. Pathetic. I hope she'll die in the bloodbath.


	10. Eleven

**Thanks for everyone who has left a review or added my story to their favorites! As always, please continue to review!**

"Would you cut it out, Glimmer?" I say for the five billionth time.

"No, you're the one that needs to cut it out," Glimmer says.

"This pack's not big enough for the two of us, and I'm telling you right now, I'm not leaving,"

"I'm not leaving either,"

"Break it up girls," Cato says. I'm suddenly aware of him sitting between the two of us. Glimmer and I back down into our seats and eat our lunch in silence. Glimmer continues to flirt with Cato though. She makes me sick.

Training is a lot more fun now that I imagine Glimmer dying every time I my knife hits the target. Motivation comes from the strangest places.

It's finally time for our private sessions with the gamemakers. This is my time to prove to them that I am superior to Glimmer. I mean, show them all I can do.

"Glimmer Coves," Atala, the head trainer says.

"Good luck, hope you get a one," I say with a sarcastic smile.

"Awe, thanks Clove, I wish the same for you," she says.

As soon as she's out of earshot, Cato whispers to me, "I know you can't stand her, but could you lay off a bit?"

"Why should I? Do you like her?" I whisper accusingly.

"No way, I can't stand her, but we agreed to be allies, so we're both going to have to deal with her."

"Fine, but don't think I'm letting her win this battle."

"I never knew there was one."

"Not officially."

"Cato Apker," Atala says.

"Good luck," I say.

"Same to you," Cato says. The boy from District Three looks at Cato and me nervously.

"What are you looking at?" I say.

"N-n-nothing," the boy says.

The minutes pass by too slowly. It feels like hours before I hear Atala's robotic voice call my name. She guides me down the hallway to the door to the training center.

"You have fifteen minutes, when you enter, state your name and district, your time will begin then." Atala says. She opens the door and gives me a little push into the room.

I walk to the center of the training center where the gamemakers can see me clearly and say, "Clove Grygiel, District Two." The Gamemakers nod and I go straight to the knives. I pick up three and send them all whizzing through the air one by one. Each one hits their mark perfectly. I turn to the gamemakers, who have put down their drinks and are literally on the edge of their seat. They look eager to see more, so I send six knives flying two by two into the targets. I know that throwing knives alone will not be enough the get me a high score, so I throw some spears. The gamemakers are starting to look bored. I must have at least eight minutes left. I've got to come up with something that will blow what every other tribute does out of the water. There's a few piece of cloth at the fire making area. Maybe if I tie them together…

I know what I should do. Is it stupid? Yes. Is it dangerous? Yes. Will it work? Hope so. If I tie a few pieces of cloth together, I can make a sort of blindfold, and I can throw a few knives with it on. As I walk back over to the knife throwing station with the makeshift blindfold, a few of the gamemakers catch on to my idea. They whisper in anticipation. I turn toward the gamemakers while I tie the cloth around my eyes. A few of them gasp. I feel my way to the handle of a knife and hold on to it tightly. I bring up the image of how the targets are set up in my mind and I let the knife fly.

The second it takes for the knife to hit the target seems like hours. I raise my blindfold just enough to see that the knife hit the target perfectly. With my confidence boosted, I pick up two more knives and throw them. Again they hit perfectly.

"Thank you, Miss Grygiel, you may leave," the head gamemaker says. I leave knowing that I did well and that I definitely outscored Glimmer.

_**Later That Night**_**…**

"Good evening Panem! It's the first of many moments you've all been waiting for! It's time for the training scores!" Caesar says. "Let's get this started with district one! First up, Marvel with a score of nine! Next, we have Glimmer with a score of nine!"

Guess a one was a bit too much to wish for.

"Moving on to district two, we have Cato with a score of ten!"

"Oh yeah!" Cato shouts victoriously.

"Clove, with a score of ten!"

"Yes!" I say. Partly because I got such a high score, but mostly because I can rub it in Glimmer's face that I scored higher than she did.

"Nice job you two!" Melody says.

The rest of the tributes get low scores. Well, every tribute except that kid from eleven, who pulled a nine. Just district twelve is left. They'll get low scores. I hope.

"Peeta, eight!"

Not bad, he seemed fairly strong. Not as strong as us.

"And last, but certainly not least, Katniss with a score of," Caesar squints his eyes at his paper, and then widens them with surprise.

_Probably got a zero, _I think.

"Eleven!"

"WHAT!" Cato shouts. He jumps off the couch. "That is not right! I DEMAND A RECOUNT!" He starts pulling his hair out. I never knew people really did that.

"Cato, sit down," Enobaria says forcefully. He keeps yelling at the television. "I mean it, Cato, sit down." He still doesn't listen.

"Cato, you need to calm down," I say. "No matter how much you scream, the fireball still outscored you." He calms down enough to talk.

"How are you not furious?" he says, still breathing heavily.

"Trust me, I'm trying not to lose it right now, but yelling isn't going to change the scores,"

"I will kill that girl in the arena. Nobody interferes."


	11. Nightmares and High Heels

**Chapter eight has been changed just a little bit because of an event in this chapter. Longest chapter so far! Please review!**

2:01, 2:02, 2:03. The minutes pass by too slowly. Training has kept my mind busy for the past few days. Now, my find is free to think about Mari. What is she doing now? Are the Apkers making her train still? Is she sad? Does she miss me? So many things I don't know and that I'll never know. Looking at the locket Cato gave me offers a little comfort, until I remember that the odds are against me ever seeing her again. I think about how I'll never see her smile again, or how I'll never hear her laugh again. I keep drifting back to the last conversation I had with her. _You have to win, Clove. Promise me you'll win. _Those two sentences echo in my head over and over. The pain it brings is overwhelming. A tear starts to roll down my cheek, followed by another, and another, until I'm sobbing. I wish I was back at my old house, the one that burnt down, with Mari sleeping just a few feet away. Where I could be there for her. I wish Cato was here with me. To sit with me while I cry, to hold my hand, to tell me everything's going to be alright. I wish I'd never been chosen for the games. I wish, I wish, I wish.

Wishes never do come true, do they?

3:10, 3:11, 3:12. Still can't get Mari off my mind, but something new has reentered my mind. Either Cato, me, or both of us will be dead in only a week or two. I don't want to die, but I don't want Cato to die either. This would've been so much easier if I had never fallen for him. I wish I never had. There I go wishing again. I know that if he dies, I'll never be able to fall in love again. The only reason anyone would love me would be for my money, and I don't want that. Cato, however, might have a crack at real love. But would he be able to move on? I'd say yes. He might be sad for a few months, but then a prettier girl will come along and he'll move on. What about Mari? Would she be able to move on with life if I die? Would she mourn my death forever? Will Mr. Apker still make her volunteer? I don't even what to think about what could, or should I say, will happen when she has to be in the games. Does she know she will have to volunteer? What did Mr. Apker say he'd do to her if she doesn't? Would he really threaten to kill her? He isn't really that cold hearted, is he?

4:11, 4:12, 4:13. With all these thoughts of my death, Cato's death, and Mari's death swirling in my mind, I'm starting to get sleepy, but I don't want to fall asleep. If I do, the nightmares that are waiting will surely be worse than my thoughts now. My eyes are drooping, but I refuse to let them close. The harder I try to keep them open, the heavier they feel. Eventually, I can't keep my eyes open and sleep overcomes me.

The second I fall asleep, the nightmares begin. A lot are about Cato dying, or about Mari dying, but one in particular really shakes me up. It's the same dream, about being consumed by a ring of fire, but this time Mari and Cato are in the ring of fire with me, and Mr. Apker is standing above us laughing. Mari and Cato's screams penetrate the air. I wake up screaming for Cato and my sister. Even after I realize it was only a dream, I continue to shake uncontrollably and breathe heavily. Someone opens my door just a little bit. I see Cato lean in just a little bit. When he sees me sitting up with the covers pulled up to my chin, he runs to my side.

"Are you okay? What happened?" He asks in a panicked voice.

"No, I mean, yes, I mean, I don't know," I say, still shaking.

"What happened?" he repeats.

"Just a nightmare."

"About what?"

"You and me and Mari and fire and-" I burst into tears.

"It's okay, it wasn't real. You're alive, I'm alive, Mari's alive. It's okay." He holds my shaking hand tightly and gently strokes my face.

"It was so real," I choke out.

"I know, I know. I promise you, it wasn't real. We're all alive," he says soothingly. I know he's right, but the vivid dream plays over and over in my mind. Each time, it instills the same fear it did the first time. Having Cato around helps, but nothing he says or does can stop my shaking.

"Try to go to sleep," he says.

"No! I can't go back to sleep. I'll just have the dream again," I say, even though I'm struggling to stay awake as it is.

"I'll stay with you,"

"Even after I fall asleep?"

"Even after you fall asleep."

"Okay," It doesn't take long for sleep to pull me into its depths. With Cato by my side, I don't have any dreams.

_**Morning**_

"Wakey, wakey lovebirds," someone says in my ear. I jump and almost punch Lyza in the face. That's what she gets for leaning to close to me. Cato yanks his hand out of mine. I guess he fell asleep knelt be my bed. Lyza and Enobaria bust out laughing. I hate I didn't take the opportunity to hit Lyza. She deserves it.

Once Lyza and Enobaria compose themselves, they go back to serious mode.

"You two have some explaining to do," Enobaria says.

"Oh man…" Cato says.

"You're in big trouble," Lyza says.

"We can explain, we can explain. There's a perfectly good reason behind this," Cato says.

"Tell us," Lyza and Enobaria say in unison.

"She was having nightmares and woke up screaming my name and her sister's name, so I came in here to make sure she was okay." Cato says.

"Then why are you _still_ here?" Enobaria asks.

"Um… uh…"

"Because I was too scared to go back to sleep without him," I snap. Lyza and Enobaria look at each other like they're about to burst out laughing again. "Don't laugh. Secret's out, Cato and I are in love. Like it matters." I angrily stomp to the shower and slam the door behind me. "GO AHEAD AND LAUGH, I KNOW YOU WANT TO," I shout from the bathroom. I hear Lyza and Enobaria's laughter as I turn the shower on.

At breakfast, Cato and I give Lyza and Enobaria the silent treatment. They try to encourage us to talk, but we hold strong.

"So, interviews, you two ready?" Lyza says playfully. No answer. "We do really need to practice for your interviews." No answer. "Look, I know what you two are doing, okay? I get the point. I'm sorry about what we did earlier, that wasn't fair of us. You can quit giving us the silent treatment." No answer.

"You know what? Let their interview be awful. If they don't want coaching, they don't get it. Come on, let's go," Enobaria says.

As soon as the girls are out of the room, Cato and I high five each other victoriously. Our mission is complete.

"In all seriousness, we do need to practice," I say.

"How? We aren't getting any help from our mentors," Cato says.

"We'll help each other," I say.

"Alright, who's first?"

I want to go first about as much as I want a hole in the head, but for some reason, I decide to go first. The first thing we have to do is come up with a direction for my interview.

"You're too small for viscous killer," Cato says.

"Hey, just because you're six plus feet tall doesn't mean you can make fun of my height," I say.

"I'm not making fun of you; I'm just making a statement,"

"Whatever."

"Anyway, you don't really come across as sly or humble. You got any ideas?"

"I have always had a talent for faking sweetness and sarcasm"

"True, that comment you made to Glimmer before her private session was perfect. I think you should go with that."

"Alright, let's get this over with."

Cato asks me questions. I answer them. Blah, blah, blah. It's hard to keep up the sweet-sarcastic mask when I'm bored out of my mind. Finally, Cato says that I'm good on interview skills. Now I have to figure out his direction.

"Vicious killing machine, definitely," I say.

"Awesome," he says.

"Alright, now lean back in the chair like you own the place."

"That, I can do."

Blah, blah, questions. Blah, Blah, answers. I hate interview practice. Cato is already great with interviews, so we only practice questions for about thirty minutes.

"You need to learn how to walk in heels," Cato says. My cheeks turn bright red. I'm only scared of two things. Dying and heels. "What?"

"I… can't… walk… in… heels…"

"Oh, sure you can. I'll go see if there's a pair in your closet."

"No, I mean it, I can't walk in heels."

"Just try it. It can't be that bad."

I remember the first and only time I walked in heels. It was on the reaping day three years ago. I was literally a magnet for bullies. I had wanted to look pretty if I had to go to the Capitol. Of course, it had to be raining. I fell face first into a mud puddle. Couldn't even break my fall. Everyone near me started laughing at me, calling me names, many people even kicked me. To this day, everyone laughs at me or gives me high heels as a "present" Only one person helped me that day. It was a boy. He was really tall, he had blonde hair, and icy blue eyes…

"I've got a few pairs. Some have higher heels than others so you can get used to them,"

"It was you," I say.

"What did I do?" Cato asks slowly seeing the spaced out expression that must be on my face.

"When I fell, at the reaping. Three years ago. You helped me up."

"That? That was nothing,"

"That was the only nice thing someone had done for me in years."

"I knew that you were bullied, and I wanted to help you. Plus, I had had kind of a crush on you, even back then."

"Thank you," I run over and fling me arms around him.

"You ready to try the shoes now?"

"I guess." He hands me the pair with the smallest heel. Just putting them on brings back so many memories. When I stand up, I start to fall, but Cato catches me. He stands behind me and holds my hands while I take baby steps in the heels. Before long, I can walk easily by myself. The next size up comes a bit easier. Slowly but surely, I climb my way up to higher heels. We finally get to the tallest pair. I start to walk, thinking that if I could walk so easily in the others, I should be able to walk easily in the tallest pair. I couldn't have been more wrong. As soon as I take two steps, I start to fall. This time, Cato isn't quick enough to catch me and I fall to the floor face first without breaking my fall. When my nose makes contact with the floor, I brace myself for the laughing, the name calling, the kicking, but it never comes. I pick my head up and find Cato knelt down beside me.

"Oh, your nose…" Cato says. He gets up and goes somewhere. I touch my finger to my nose and when I pull it away, it's coated with blood. Cato comes back with a handful of napkins. He helps me up to the couch and holds the napkins to my nose.

"I am so sorry. I should've caught you," Cato says.

"It's okay," I say.

"No, it's not. I never should've made you wear those heels."

"It's okay. I need to learn how to wear them."

"I'm so, so, so, sorry,"

"It's okay."

I hear footsteps in the hallway, so I snatch the napkins away from Cato, just in case it's not an Avox.

"What in the world," Lyza's voice says.

"I was trying to walk in heels," I say.

"And now you have a bloody nose. Great! What if it's broken?" Vivi says.

"I know what you're not wearing tomorrow," Harmony says.

"Move the napkins," Enobaria says. I do, and she leans over my head to inspect my nose. "Not broken, but definitely bloody. It'll be fine for tomorrow," she reports.

"That's a relief." Harmony says.

"Why were you trying to walk in heels?" Lyza asks.

"We were practicing for our interviews," I say.

"Good, maybe you two won't be complete failures tomorrow," Enobaria says.

"We wouldn't have been complete failures," Cato says defensively.

"Right, you just keep thinking that. Now, let's eat lunch," Enobaria says.

"Are you going to be coaching us afterward?" I ask.

"Nope. You gave the silent treatment, now you're going to pay,"


	12. Interviews

**As usual, please review!**

"What am I wearing tonight? Will I be on fire?" I ask.

"I wish. Melody and I couldn't figure out how that other stylist did it. Plus, it would make no sense. Instead, we're going to make you look like you're straight from the Capitol!" Harmony says. I hope that by 'straight from the Capitol' she doesn't mean body alterations and all. She hands me a strapless coral pink dress with a ruffled top.

"No heels?" I ask.

"No heels," Harmony confirms. Instead, she gives me a pair of coral pink sandals. "Everything comfortable?"

"Yep, is it already time to go?"

"Uh-huh! Let's go!"

Cato and I are the first pair of tributes to arrive, but to our delight, Marvel and Glimmer arrive. Glimmer's dress is light pink and hardly comes down halfway to her knees. It might be cute, on a two year old. She stands far too close to Cato for my comfort, and Cato's, too. He scoots over one inch, she scoots one and a half.

When district four arrives, Cato uses the opportunity to talk to Rascal. Or more likely, to get away from Glimmer. It looks like he's giving the little kid some harsh words. Rascal hangs his head and nods occasionally. Eventually Cato walks off and stands next to me.

"What was that about?" I ask.

"I told him that he's got a lot to prove and that if he doesn't live up to my standards, I'll kick him out," he says.

"Isn't that a bit harsh? I mean, he's only twelve."

"Exactly why he's got so much to prove."

The other tributes arrive, they all seem to have abandoned the typical 'represent your district' outfits and gone with the 'straight from the Capitol' look. Well, all of them but district twelve. The boy has on a black suit with flames on the sleeves, and the girl has on a red dress. I admit, I'm just a little bit jealous of the girl. Okay, a lot jealous. Her dress makes my frilly pink dress look childish.

A Capitol attendant tells us to get in line. This time, the girls go first, so I slip in front of Cato and behind Marvel. Glimmer is only one person away. Perfect opportunity.

"Oh, Glimmer, your dress is so pretty!" I say sweetly.

She considers this for a moment, and then cautiously says, "Thanks, I think."

"I mean it. It's really cute,"

"You really think so?"

"Yeah, for a baby. I guess that's why it looks so pretty on you."

She looks at me angrily for a few seconds, trying to come up with a comeback, but she just huffs and turns around. Victory is mine.

Glimmer goes up for her interview, then Marvel, now it's my turn. I rise up on the elevator and emerge on the stage. The crowd goes wild when I wave and blow kisses. Caesar quiets the audience, and the interview begins. It all goes smoothly, the audience loves my sarcastic-sweet attitude.

"Now Clove, do you feel that you are prepared for tomorrow?"

"Of course I am. I haven't trained my whole life not to be prepared."

"That's good to hear. What would you say your strategy is?"

"I can't tell you that! Don't want to give my competition any hints!"

"Good point, I understand." A buzzing sound fills the air. "That marks the end of another interview. Good luck in the arena, Clove!"

When I get back under the stage, I go over to the screen so I can watch Cato's interview. Glimmer and Marvel are over there, too.

"Can someone get me a glass of water? I need something to get the sweetness out of my mouth," Glimmer say. She smirks at me only confirming that her comment was directed at me. I'm not going to let her win this insult war.

"I thought babies liked sweet things," I say.

An Avox thought that Glimmer literally wanted a glass of water, so she taps Glimmer's shoulder and gives her a glass cup filled to the brim with water. Glimmer looks at it for a second, and then throws the water onto my dress.

"Oops, I slipped," Glimmer says in imitation of my fake sweetness.

"Lay off, you two," someone says. We both whirl around to see Cato standing behind us. I missed his whole interview. "You two are going to have to somewhat get along, so you might as well start now." Both of us shoot him a look. "Shake hands."

"No," Glimmer and I say in unison.

"Do it," Cato says. I roll my eyes and stick my hand out. Glimmer unhappily takes it and we shake hands.

"Good, now apologize," Cato says.

"Sorry," Glimmer and I say bitterly.

"No, I mean really apologize, Clove, you start."

"Ugh, fine. I'm sorry I beat you up, wished you bad luck, said your dress is ugly, and called you a baby. Happy?"

"Now Glimmer,"

"I'm sorry I fought with you, wished you bad luck, said you were too sweet, and threw water on your dress."

"And?" I say.

"And what?" she says innocently.

"Oh, I don't know, for flirting with Cato and then rubbing it in my face?"

"Why should I apologize? Oh, I know. Because you're in love,"

"Maybe I am. You got a problem with it?"

"Cut it out you two," Cato says. "I give up. Just don't kill each other in the arena, please."

"Fine," Glimmer and I say in unison. We turn our backs to each other.

The girl from eleven is going up for her interview. She reminds me a lot of Mari. Small, sweet, cute. Her little dress has wings, making her look like a little fairy. For a second, just one itty-bitty second, I feel guilty for knowing she will have to die. But if I plan to get home, she has to die. Odds are, I won't be the one to kill her.

The girl from twelve, Katniss, I think is her name, has to have the worst interview in the history of the Games. She gets up and spins around, making her dress sparkle like fire. She seems really stupid for a person who got an eleven. I hope she's a dumb as her interview made her look.

Then the boy, Peeta, does his interview. To say his was better than Katniss's would be the world's biggest understatement. He and Caesar make a great team. His interview seems more like a comedy show than an interview, but he seems a little preoccupied. Caesar asks him if he has a girlfriend, and he says, get this, that he's in love with Katniss. Ha, what a joke.

"You two ready to go back up?" someone says from behind us. It's Lyza.

"Oh, yeah," I say.

"You know we've been standing here since your interviews were finished," Enobaria says.

"Oh… shoot," I say.

"Oh shoot is right. We saw the whole spat with Glimmer." Lyza says.

"Great…"

"You're not in trouble, we're just teasing," Enobaria says.

"Good, you scared me for a minute,"

"Mission accomplished," they both say and high five each other.

"Come on, we better get you back to the apartment. Big day tomorrow," Lyza says.

I wish the elevator ride was slower. I'm not sure if I'm ready to sleep again, especially with the arena on my mind. The nightmares are sure to return with full force. But all too soon, the elevator stops, we go into our rooms, and despite my best efforts, I fall asleep.

Sure enough, I have the same nightmare. Me, Cato, Mari, ring of fire, Mr. Apker laughs, they die, I wake up screaming. Only this time, nobody comes, and I'm left alone in the dark, shaking, hoping to maybe scrape together another hour of sleep.


	13. What Haven We Done?

"You want something to eat?"

"No."

"Water?"

"No."

"Please, you have to eat or drink something,"

"Do you not get the definition of no?"

Harmony has been trying to force food down my throat for the past half hour. I don't want to admit it, but I'm too nervous to eat.

"Thirty seconds," an automated voice says. I try to suppress the fear bubbling up inside of me, but it's threatening to show. Harmony clips my locket around my neck, and I cling to the little heart like a lifeline.

"Twenty seconds." My breathing starts to get heavy and my heart is nearly beating out of my chest. Harmony gives me a hug.

"I haven't had a winning tribute yet, but this is the year, I feel it," she says.

"Thank you," I say. A single tear runs down my cheek. Harmony brushes it away.

"Ten seconds." I've gone into full scale panic mode now.

"It's okay, breathe, Clove. You're going to be fine," Harmony says. The world is spinning and I feel like I might black out. Harmony gentle pushes me into the tube. The door to the tube closes. I've never felt claustrophobic before, but I feel like I'll suffocate if I don't escape this tube. Just before the plate begins to rise, Harmony makes a motion like hold something. My locket, right. I hold it with all my strength. I feel the temperature of the air around my head change and I know I've entered the arena. For a moment the sunlight blinds me, and then I see the golden cornucopia, a grassy meadow, a forest, a field of wheat, a lake.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, let the seventy-fourth Hunger Games begin!" a voice says. The countdown begins. The sight of the other tributes and the well-stocked cornucopia reminds me why I'm here.

_You are here to fight, _I repeat over and over until my nerves leave me completely.

Ten

Nine

Eight

_I'm ready_

Six

Five

Four

_I'm here to win_

Three

Two

One

The gong sounds and all I know is that I'm running. Running for the cornucopia. I see nothing but the mound of supplies waiting for me. Without thinking twice, I grab a knife out of the cornucopia and send it flying for a boy fighting with a girl over a tiny orange backpack. He drops dead. _My first kill. _My pride is short lived though, because the girl he was fighting for the backpack was the fire girl. I throw a knife aimed straight for her head, but it misses. How did it miss? It was aimed perfectly! In my moment of shock, I get a quick look what's going on around me. Marvel stabs a girl with a spear. Cato slashes a boy's neck, the boy from eleven knocks Rascal to the ground with a huge rock. In my second of shock, I have seen something that will be forever burned into my memory.

_Bam! _Someone knocks me to the ground. It's a girl, but I don't know where she's from. She holds a knife to my throat.

"Move and I'll kill you," she hisses. I can just barely see a spear lying within arms-reach. I hold the girls stare and reach for the spear. My hand locks around the metal spear and I slowly raise it up. The girl still doesn't know it. I stab her side. She drops the knife and pulls her hands to the wound. It's bad, but not bad enough to kill her. I take the spear and stab it into her chest. She looks stunned for a second and then drops to the ground. I don't bother to take the bloody spear from her body. Most of the weapons lying around the cornucopia have been taken, so I make another run for the mouth to restock. There are only a few of us left in the meadow now, most of us careers, but a few people remain to finish off the tributes they started. Most of those end up running for the woods or dead.

Just like that, it's over. Only the five careers remain and the mangled bodies of tributes remain. I see the boy Cato was cutting up, now a mess of flesh and blood, the girl Marvel was stabbing to death, Rascal, with a dent in his skull from the rock. A thousand things run through my head. _Did they have a little sister or brother waiting for them? What were there last thoughts? Could that have been me? _One question bugs me as I see the bloody corpses around us.

_What have we done?_

The good loving side of me says that we just killed twelve innocent children. Some were no more than twelve. They all had families whose final memory of them now will be seeing them beaten to death, friends who thought of them as family, maybe even a lover whose heart is now shattered into a million pieces.

_What have we done?_

The career side of me says that we have just taken eleven steps towards home. We proved our power, intimidated the others, given them a reason to stay away. We showed that we are the careers, and we show no mercy.

_What have we done?_

"Alright, how many kills?" Cato says.

"Three," Marvel says.

"One," Glimmer says.

"Two," I say.

"I thought you had the girl from twelve, too," Cato says.

"I missed," I say angrily.

"Poor Clove, is this the first time you've missed?" Glimmer says. I throw a knife at her, but she steps away. "Missed again," she says.

"Anyway, I got four," Cato says

"None," Kyla says shyly. "But I did give someone a pretty deep cut."

"You better prove yourself fast, Kyla," Cato says. Kyla nods.

"Hey, what's that?" Marvel says, pointing toward the edge of the forest. There's a person coming toward our camp. We position our weapons, but the person puts his hands in the air. As he approaches, I recognize him as the boy from twelve, Peeta.

"Give me one good reason I shouldn't kill you," Cato hisses.

"I can help you find Katniss. I know her and I could probably help you track her," Peeta says.

"I don't trust you," Cato says.

"I promise I'll help you. You can let me go if I don't"

"Let me discuss it with the pack," Cato turns to face us and tells us to circle up.  
"I don't trust him. How can we be sure he won't lead us away from Katniss?" Cato says.

"I say we keep him. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer," I say.

"Good point. Who votes to keep him?" Cato says. Everyone gives a slight nod and we turn back around to face Peeta.

"Welcome to the pack, Loverboy," Cato says. Loverboy, I like it. Cato steps forward and shakes loveboy's hand.

"What do we do now?" Glimmer asks.

"I think we should assess our injuries and the start hunting," Cato says. I haven't looked to see if I have any injuries in the first place. Just a few minor cuts and bruises, nothing major, like some people. Marvel's got a pretty deep cut on his arm, Loverboy has a cut on his forehead, Kyla has a pretty bad cut on her leg.

Once we've bandaged up our wounds, we go through the weapons. I find an arsenal of knives of all shapes and sizes, Marvel gets a couple spears and some extra spear heads, Cato gets a few swords, Glimmer gets a bow and arrows, Loverboy doesn't seem to know what to get, so I give him a long bladed knife. It's useless for throwing, so I guess someone should use it. Kyla offers to carry supplies. I don't think she wants to kill people, but I can't blame her.

As we're gathering supplies, the cannons start to fire. Eleven. Eleven people dead in just the first day. It's hard to believe that the field's down to thirteen so fast. I guess it's good. Less people to worry about, get out of this place sooner.

"Let's hunt," Cato says. "Wait, where did Katniss go, Loverboy?"

"I think she went to the woods," Loverboy says.

"Alright, let's move," Marvel says.

"Wait, wait. Which direction?" Cato says.

"Um… right. Yeah, right," Loverboy says.

"Are you sure?" Cato asks.

"I was focusing on trying to stay alive, not watch her every move, but I'm almost sure she went right."

"Got a bit of an attitude," I mumble. Loverboy shoots me a look.

"Now can we hunt?" Marvel asks eagerly. He acts more like a two year old than an eighteen year old.

"Yes, Marvel, now we can hunt. Kyla and I will take the lead," Glimmer huffs and crosses her arms. "Loverboy and Glimmer in the center, and Clove and Marvel guard our backs. Let's go."

We light some torches so we can see. Kyla gets one, and Loverboy gets one. Then, we move out into the woods. The sun is just starting to set, so the torches aren't really necessary, but it's getting dark quickly, more quickly than usual. Soon, the only light we have is the faint light of the moon and the light of the two torches.

There's a slight crackling noise coming from close to us. We all turn our head in the direction of the noise. Behind a few trees, we can see a fire and the face of a girl. As silently as possible, we sneak up behind her.

The girl hears the snap of a twig under Cato's foot and snaps her head around. Her eyes get as big as dinner plates.

"Don't kill me, don't kill me!" she shrieks, "Please don't kill me!" She should know that she will have no such luck. Cato takes out a sword and sticks it straight into her heart. There's a blood-curdling scream, and then silence.

"Twelve down, eleven to go!" Marvel shouts in celebration. Our hunting is not yet over. We keep walking to the right. Cato's not going to go back to camp until we find Lovergirl.

Something isn't right. There's something missing. We killed the girl, but there's been no cannon.

"Shouldn't we have heard a cannon?" I say. Everyone stops and looks at me.

"Yeah, we should've," Glimmer says.

"Maybe she isn't dead," Marvel says.

"No, she's dead. I stabbed her myself," Cato says.

"Then where's the cannon?" Marvel says.

An argument breaks out between Glimmer, Marvel, and Cato over whether she's dead or not. Never thought I'd see the day Glimmer got in a fight with Cato.

"We're wasting time," Loverboy says. "I'll go finish her off."

After Loverboy is out of earshot, Glimmer says, "Why don't we just kill him now?"

"Let him stay. Besides, he's our best chance of finding her," Cato says.

When Loverboy returns, he says, "She wasn't dead, but she is now." I'm not sure if it's just my imagination, but I think his hand is shaking ever so slightly. No, I'm not imagining it. Having to kill that girl completely unnerved him. This brings the question back into my mind.

_What have we done?_


	14. Intimidating

**Sorry I haven't posted anything lately. I'm taking a break from this story to focus on my other story (It's called Let The Games Begin Again, you should read it!). I will continue with it soon!**

"Hey, Clove," someone says, waking me from my sleep. It's Marvel.

"What?" I ask a bit too harshly.

"It's your turn to guard," he says. I grab my knife, which never actually left me side, and sit up against a tree. There's really no point in having a guard. Nobody's going to mess with a group like this. Oh well. If someone did, I guess someone better be able to protect us.

From where I sit, I can see the reflection of the moonlight off of someone's eyes. I think it's Loverboy. He seems like a nice guy, but I hate him for that sappy romance stuff that stole the heart of every idiotic Capitol citizen.

"I'm pretty sure we only need one guard, Loverboy," I snap, again a bit too harshly. He turns his head sharply towards me. I can see that he's tense.

"Oh, uh, s-sorry," he stutters.

"Why are you awake? Keeping an eye out for Lovergirl?" I say.

"No, just can't sleep with the threat of death hanging over me. And my name's Peeta, not Loverboy."

"Whatever, Loverboy." He mumbles something under his breath and rolls over.

I hate guard duty more than I hate being in the games. It's so dull, I'd rather watch paint dry. Absolutely nothing happens. Well, nothing until the sun comes up.

Everyone is sleeping in. It appears to be around eight o'clock and no one has budged. No one except Glimmer, who rolls over and dreamily says Cato's name in her sleep repeatedly. Every time she does it I consider just killing her and getting rid of her sooner than later.

She rolls over again and puts her head on Cato's arm. I can't stand it anymore. A black snake, about two feet long, slithers by just a few feet away. I quietly crawl out to where it is and pick it up. Then I set it gently by Glimmer's face.

"Get up Blondie," I say, and give her a rough shove. Her eyelashes flutter open. My wake-up-call has woken up everyone else too, making Glimmer's reaction even better.

When she sees the snake, which is conveniently in her face, she screams and tries to shove it away. The snake only slithers closer. She continues screaming hysterically, while I laugh my head off. Marvel, Cato, Kyla, and Loverboy look between me and Glimmer like we're both crazy, which we might be. Unfortunately, kind-hearted Kyla lifts the snake off of Glimmer and places it in a bush. Glimmer stops screaming, and she turns to me. Her face is red with anger and she's breathing heavily.

"You. Did. This," she huffs. I would deny it, but being that I was the only one cracking up while the snake was on her, that's not a choice.

"Yeah, what are you going to about it?" I say.

"I don't know yet, but you will pay," she says.

"Ooo I'm so scared."

"You should be." She takes a step toward me and slaps me across the face. I pretend that it hurt and put my hand over the place her hand hit me. I glance up to see that she has a devilish smirk on her face. She laughs at my "pain". I punch her in the face. She stumbles back and looks at me with disbelief. Her nose is bleeding heavily. I know that I have done enough, maybe even too much, but I am so sick of her lovey-dovey stupidity that I have snapped. I take another step toward her and punch her again and again. She puts up a weak fight, but I easily overpower her despite the fact that I'm at least five inches shorter than her.

"BREAK IT UP!" I hear Cato shout. In my daze of anger, I turn to punch him. He anticipates this and grabs my wrist. He takes my other hand, too, even though it is only balled up in a fist at my side. I'm panting with anger and I can feel the redness in my face. Cato sits walks me to a rock and sits me down. He doesn't let my hands go.

"Clove, what in the world possessed you to do that?" he says calmingly. His voice makes me forget my anger, and my ridged body relaxes and I release my fists.

"I don't know, but I'm not sorry," I say, my voice still harsh with anger.

"Well, you should be. Look, I know it's only a matter of time before you and Glimmer try to kill each other, and when the time comes I'll side with you, but until then, you have to deal with her and at least try to show some self-control?"

"Fine. But don't expect me to apologize." He releases my wrists and takes my hand. Out of the corner of my eye, I can see Kyla treating Glimmer with some sort of first aid kit. I know what I did was wrong, but… no, she deserved what she got. I have a strange sense of satisfaction from our fight.

After about a half an hour, Cato says, "Okay, we should probably get hunting. I think we would be best off split up. Glimmer, go with Marvel," Glimmer huffs. "Loverboy, go with Clove, and Kyla come with me. Get some supplies from Kyla just in case we end up split up for a while, and make sure to leave no trace of our camp. Pick a direction, and move out. Kill anyone you see, but if you see Lovergirl, bring her to me. I want to kill her myself." Loverboy flinches. I take a backpack with a small medical kit, some water, beef jerky, duct tape, rope, and a loaf of bread in it. The only other things I take are my sleeping bag and wide variety of knives, which fit nicely in the backpack. As soon as Loverboy gets his stuff, we leave the camp. As much as I hate Loverboy for stealing nearly every potential sponsor, I have some respect for him. I can tell that he is a good person; far better than the rest of us.

As we walk, I notice that Loverboy keeps his eyes on the ground even though he should be watching for people, and his clenched fists stay by his side. His whole body is stiff. It almost looks like he's shaking.

I stop walking and cross my arms across my chest. "Okay, what's going on?" I ask. Loverboy stops and turns to face me. He keeps his eyes on the ground.

"N-nothing, why?" he says shakily.

"Oh, come on, anyone can see that you're afraid of something, and don't tell me it's the threat of death because you were perfectly fine when you first came to us, and you didn't even tense up around Cato for crying out loud."

"I'm not afraid of anything. Shouldn't we be hunting?" Suddenly, I can see what he's afraid of, and he has perfectly good reason to be.

"Are you afraid of me?"

"N-n… yes."

"I know this is a stupid question, but why?"

"I… don't know… you're just… intimidating."

"Me, intimating? Yeah right. You're at least twice my size and you could probably crush me with your thumb."

"Can't we just hunt?" I can see he's getting annoyed by this conversation. I know it shouldn't, but it makes me feel good to know that I'm intimidating.

We don't see anything in the woods for hours, but I finally catch a glimpse of a boy behind a tree. I don't see any reason to rush, so I figure I might as well use my supposed intimidation to my advantage. We creep up quietly behind the kid, who looks to be about thirteen. I grab his shoulders and he starts to scream, but I put a hand over his mouth.

"Don't move," I hiss. I let the boy go long enough to walk around the tree to be in front of him. His pupils are dilated in fear and he is shaking violently. Good. I'm going to give the audience a good show. "So, boy, where are you from?" I say.

"Dis… dis… dis…" he starts I grab his jacket a push him against the tree.

"Answer me!" I yell.

"D-district three," he says quickly.

"That's better. Now let's see, where to start, where to start." I pull out a long, serrated knife. "How about your hands? Won't be needing those anymore, now will you?" I pull out his hand and hold the knife to it. Its shaking so badly that can't cut it. "Stop shaking." He does, but he starts to whimper. I make the first cut, opening a deep gash on his wrist. I start to make the second when he starts to scream.

"STOP! STOP!" he shrieks.

"Why should I?"

"I… I… I can help you. I can rewire the mines to protect your food. I'll do anything. Just don't kill me. Please don't kill me," he begs.

"Rewire the mines? Sounds intriguing. Fine, I'll take you to camp. If Cato approves, great, if not, you're still lucky because he'll kill you fast. If he does approve, but you lie to us, let's just say you can anticipate a long, painful death." He nods. "Good. Now, let's tie you up."

"Wait, tie me up? What?" I pull the knife back out and hold it to his wrist. "Okay, okay, tie me up, sounds great."

"That's what I thought." I take the rope from my backpack and tie his hands behind his back, taking care to put the rope right over the cut. "Is this too tight?" I ask.

"No, it's fine."

"Okay." I pull the rope tighter. "How about now?"

"It's a bit tight." I pull the ropes until he cries out and has a tear running down his face. Then, I put duct tape around his mouth.

"Loverboy, take his other side," I say. He nods and takes the boy's arm. The boy is still shaking and whimpering through the tape.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Is the rope to tight?" he nods violently. I untie to rope and yank it even tighter. He cries out quite loudly despite the tape and I slap him across the face. "Do not make a sound or I will kill you." He stops his quiet whimper. I kick him in the shin to try to elicit a cry from him, but he only grimaces. He's tougher than he looks.

"Um… C-Clove, isn't this a bit… much?" Loverboy says. I pull out the knife and hold it to his neck. "Okay, okay, never mind."

"That's what I thought." I give the boy a sharp pull forward and start for the cornucopia.


	15. No, You Are

**Back with updates again!**

"Rewire the mines, huh? Sounds intriguing," Cato says. He pauses for a minute. "Alright, you can stay, but you have to do whatever I say, got it?" The boy nods. "Okay. Untie him." I untie the ropes and the boy lets out a sigh of relief. He rubs the cuts left on his hands by the rope. "Now get to work." The boy nods and runs over to one of the plates. Cato sighs. "How long do you give him before he runs off?"

"Two days, max," I say.

"You'd give him that long?" Cato whispers.

"Why did you even let him stay if you think he'll just run off?" Glimmer asks. "Oh, I know. It's because your girlfriend brought him back."

"She's not my-"

"Oh, forget it," I say, cutting Cato off. "It doesn't even matter. One of us is going to end up dead anyway."

"Both of you," Glimmer says like a teacher correcting a student. Her comment just adds fuel to the ever-growing fire of hatred inside of me. Without thinking, I shove her so hard, she topples to the ground. She looks stunned.

"You wanna bet on it Blondie?" I sneer. My hand wraps around the handle of my knife. Just as I begin to pull it out, a strong pair of hands wrap around my wrists. I snap my head around and, unsurprisingly, see Cato standing behind me. "Let go," I grumble at him.

"You let go of the knife," he says calmly.

"Let me clarify. Let go of me now," I say.

"The let me clarify. You let go of the knife now," he says, his voice still calm. With a sudden burst of strength, I wrench my hands from his grasp.

"Why do you even care?" I shout. "She's got to die eventually, why not now? This is the arena for crying out loud! What have we been trained to do our whole lives?" Cato snatches my hand and starts trying to drag me towards the woods. When I refuse to move, he hoists me over his shoulder and starts walking while I scream quite a few choice words at him.

After a minute or two, he sets me down but keeps a tight grip on my wrists. I attempt to kick him off of me, but he hardly flinches.

"Clove, I'm going to ask you this as nicely as possible," he says once I realize that fighting him is futile. "What is wrong with you?" Normally, I would come up with a snappy reply, but I know that would do me more harm than good here.

"I don't know, it's just... when I get angry, something comes over me and I just loose it," I say. "But seriously, why do you care if I kill Glimmer?"

"She's our ally whether you like it or not. When you go home I don't want you remembered as The Girl Who Killed Her Ally," he says.

"Why does that matter? They'll just see it as one more kill to my name. They don't care," I say.

"But you will. I don't want you to regret killing her," he says.

"Oh, trust me. I wouldn't regret killing her," I say.

"You might not now, but you will later. She's human, she has a family, ,aye a boyfriend-"

"Yeah, and she thinks his name is Cato," I say, cutting him off. "But you're the one who's making it out of the arena, not me."

"No, you're going to live."

"No, you are."

"No, you are!"

We go back and forth like this for a minute or two. After that, it hits me that this is probably the first time tributes have argued over who is going to die. Okay, I take that back, argued over who is going to die and saying it's themselves. For some reason, I start to laugh. Cato starts to laugh, too.

"We really should get back," I say while still laughing. Cato nods and we walk back to the cornucopia trying to keep our laughter under control. When we get there, we still let out the occasional giggle. Marvel, Glimmer, and even Kyla and Loverboy look at us like we're crazy. Glimmer pretends not to be afraid of me, but she's sitting on the complete opposite side of the cornucopia. It satisfies me knowing that yet one more person is afraid of me.

We spend a few hours sitting in the shade of the cornucopia, drinking water, snacking on apples and beef jerky, watching the kid work. He occasionally glances at us nervously, but turns his head away quickly.

"We really should be doing something productive," I say after about two hours.

"Well, we can't exactly hunt and leave him here," Cato says.

"Some of us could stay here," Marvel suggests.

"That might work," Cato says. "Okay, Clove, Loverboy, and I will go hunt." Glimmer huffs and crosses her arms. "Make sure he doesn't run away or try to steal anything. If he does, don't kill him. Make him answer to me." He turns to Loverboy. "You are going to help us find Katniss." Loverboy nods, but there's a glint of worry in his eyes. I know why he's here. He's here to protect his girlfriend, not to help us track her down.

We walk through the woods, but find no one. Cato constantly asks Loverboy where Katniss would've gone, but he always gives the same answer.

"I'm not a mind reader, how am I supposed to know her plans?" Cato gets more and more agitated. Eventually, I think he gets the point and quits asking.

After a couple hours, Loverboy freezes and snaps his head to the left.

"What is it?" Cato asks quietly.

"I think I just saw red hair or something over there," Loverboy says. Cato starts to run in the direction Loverboy is looking in. Loverboy and I follow slightly behind.

"I know you're here somewhere," Cato growls. "Don't be shy, come out and fight."

"Cato, would you please shut up?" I snap. He turns his head around long enough to give me a dirty look. He keeps walking but doesn't say anything else.

From the corner of my eye, I see a flash of long red hair. I instinctively throw a knife in the general direction of the hair. My knife only hits a tree, though. I kick the ground and mutter a few curse words before retrieving the knife. Cato gives me a confused look.

"I saw her," I grumble. He turns in the direction that I saw the girl, or at least I hope it was a girl and not a boy with super long hair.

After walking for a few minutes, I spot a hole almost hidden by bushes. Cato and Loverboy pull the bushes aside while I inspect the hole. I reach in the hole, which is the perfect size to conceal a human. My hand hits something. I pull it out. An apple. I set it down and fish around a little bit more, but the apple is the only thing there.

"Bet that's the red-head's hole," I say.

"Too bad we can't block it or something," Cato says.

"Yeah. It would be kind of pointless to try to fill it with dirt or something now," I say. Cato nods.

"Let's just keep moving. We'll check back here tomorrow," he says. "Let's go switch off with the others. I'm tired of hunting."

We silently make our way back to camp without spotting any other tributes. Marvel, Glimmer, and Kyla go off towards a field of wheat to hunt. Mine-boy hasn't run off yet, and he seems to be making headway with the mines. Maybe he will actually pull this off.

I grab a water bottle and drink about half of it. I'm not sure why I'm trying to save water. We've still got like ten bottles left, and there's the lake. We've got iodine to sanitize it. That ought to last is through the entire games. Unless the gamemakers drain the water, which could happen. If it does, I'm sure we've got enough sponsors that will give us some water. Then again, Loverboy and Lovergirl might have taken all of the sponsors. Na, surely we've got at least a few sponsors.

"Haven't heard any canons today," Cato says.

"Me either," I say. That's not good. The audience will get bored without a gruesome death to entertain them, then the gamemakers might send in some kind of attack. Who knows what they'll do.

Marvel, Glimmer, and Kyla come back around the time the sun is setting, disappointment on their faces. No kills other than a few rabbits and a bird no one recognizes. We start a fire and stick the skinned animals onto spears to roast them. I let Glimmer try the bird first, just to make sure it won't kill me. To my disappointment, she doesn't die. The bird is good though, and the rabbit isn't bad. I prefer chicken and pork though. But I don't think a chicken or a pig is going to miraculously appear in the arena.

The Capitol anthem plays. No faces appear in the sky tonight. I hope there will be some deaths tomorrow. Wouldn't want the gamemakers to set the arena on fire or something.

"I think we should try some night hunting," Cato says.

"I agree," I say. It seems like we have better luck at night. "We could hunt for a few hours and then camp in the woods."

"Na, too risky," Marvel says.

"I agree with Marvel," Loverboy says.

"Your opinion doesn't count," Cato snaps at him.

"I don't think we should hunt," Kyla says quietly.

"Glimmer, it's up to you," Cato says.

She thinks for a minute, then says, "I'm with Cato." I roll my eyes.

"Then I guess we're hunting," Cato says. Everyone packs up their backpacks and sleeping bags, lights some torches, and start for the woods.

"Wait!" Marvel says. "What about him?" He nods in the direction of the Mine-boy.

"I think we can trust him," Cato says. He walks over to the boy, who is staring at us with a confused look. Cato says something to the boy and comes back. "He's going to guard. Oh, and his name is Axel."

"Okay, sounds good," Marvel says.

We go into the woods, but we don't see anyone. This is getting old. Surely the gamemakers will send in an attack if we don't find anyone soon. After an hour or two, we find a place to camp. We put out the torches and climb into our sleeping bags. I'm not sure who is on first watch or when I'll have to do watch, I just fall asleep quickly.


	16. How NOT To Kill Lovergirl

I wake up with a sharp cry. I was having that dream about fire again. My eyes fly around for confirmation that it was just a dream and the arena isn't actually on fire.

"Clove?" I hear someone whisper. Cato. "Are you okay?"

"Bad dream," I say. Cato scoots over to me and puts an arm around me.

"Was it the same one? About the fire?" he asks. I nod. There's a faint light in the sky. It's probably around six o'clock. I close my eyes and try to go back to sleep, but I keep hearing the crackling noises of a fire burning. Then, I start to smell smoke. Did the dream really get to me that bad?

"Oh my gosh," Cato says. He starts to stand up. "Run!" He shouts. I jump up and turn around to see a wall of fire quickly closing in on us. The others have woken up and are on their feet. We start to run. Isn't this ironic. I have a dream about fire, and now the arena is on fire. It occurs to me that Lovergirl must be around here somewhere. She's got to be the inspiration for this attack.

"We need to get back to camp!" Glimmer shouts. No one says anything, so I'm assuming that everyone agrees.

Suddenly, a fireball whooshes past me. I lean out of the way, but not before it grazes my arm. It hurts really bad, but I have to keep running. I hear a sharp cry from Glimmer. She must have been hit. More and more fireballs appear seemingly out of nowhere. I'm prepared for it now, so I can duck out of the way before they hit. It seems like everyone else has caught on, too.

Without warning, I fall face-first to the ground. I try to get up, but my foot is caught in a vine. Everyone keeps running forward except Cato. No. He has to keep going.

"Cato, go!" I shout. He doesn't turn around though. "Keep going!"

"I'm not leaving you!" he shouts. He kneels down beside me and rips the vine from foot. He takes my hands and pulls me to my feet. We start to run again, dodging dozens of fireballs along the way. The smoke is making it hard to breathe. I want to slow down, catch my breath, but a voice inside me tells me to keep going. Keep going, keep going, keep going. My legs are burning. Keep going. My lungs are on fire. Keep going. I can't go on. Keep going.

Finally, I stumble onto the grassy plain. The fire seems to be contained to the forest, so I allow myself to slow down. As soon as I make it to where the others are sitting, I collapse. Marvel hands me a bottle of water, and I chug it down gratefully. It takes me about ten minutes to catch my breath. My arm is starting to hurt a lot worse now. I roll my jacket up and examine the red mark on my arm. It could be a whole lot worse, though. Kyla comes over with a bottle of water and pours it over the burn.

"That's not the drinking water, is it?" I ask.

"No, it's just lake water," she says. She hands me a piece of rabbit left over from last night. It's kind of disgusting, but I'd hate for the rabbit to go bad. Food is food in the arena.

It looks like the fire has stopped. Now, the forrest is thick with smoke. Even from here I can smell it. I'd suggest going back and trying to find Lovergirl, but the smoke would suffocate us. I'll suggest it later.

We rest for a while, watching Axel work. I'm surprised that he's hung around this long. And kind of disappointed. I was sort of hoping that he'd fail completely and we could just kill him. Why did I even bring him back? I'm so stupid.

A couple hours later, after we're all rested up. I suggest going back into the woods.

"What good would that do us?" Marvel asks.

"Think about it. The gamemakers lit the forest on fire. Who do you think inspired that?" I say.

"Oh, I get it. Katniss," Marvel says.

"She's probably injured, so if we catch her now, she wouldn't be able to put up much of a fight," I say.

"Good point," Cato says. "I say we go. Anyone disagree?" Everyone except Loverboy shakes their head. "Loverboy, do you have a problem with it?"

"What? Uh, no," he says.

"Should we bring our sleeping bags?" Glimmer asks.

"Na, we'll come back," Cato says. He turns around to face Axel. "Hey!" he shouts. Axel drops the wire he's holding. "You're on guard again. We'll be back by night." Axel nods and grabs a spear. I doubt he can actually use a spear. "Let's go."

We head for the woods for what feels like the billionth time. I hope we find Lovergirl so I don't look like a complete idiot. There are no signs of her anywhere. No footprints, no old fires, nothing. She's a lot smarter than her interview made her look. I keep my eyes on the trees, thinking she might possibly be staying up there. Nothing. Great.

"Maybe you were wrong," Glimmer says, her voice raspy from the lingering smoke.

"We've only been looking for an hour. She could be anywhere out here," I say, trying to stay hopeful even though I'm almost sure we won't find her.

A few minute later, we come across a river. "Maybe she'll be close to here. She's probably found it by now," Marvel says. We search along the river, but we don't see her or any sign of her.

"Maybe we should head back," Loverboy says.

"No, let's keep going a little built longer," Cato says. Suddenly, he stops. "Look! She's right there!" Sure enough, Lovergirl is climbing up tree. We start to run towards her. By the time we get to her tree though, she's at least twenty feet in the air. I look up at her and smile evilly. We've got her now for sure.

"How's everything with you?" She calls down. Her comment surprises me. If I were in her position, I'd be freaking out.

"Well enough," Cato says. "Yourself?"

"It's been a bit warm for my taste. The air's better up here. Why don't you come up?" she says.

"I think I will," Cato says.

"Here, take this, Cato," Glimmer says, handing him the bow and arrows. Lovergirl eyes them jealously.

"No," Cato says, pushing the now away. "I'll do better with my sword." As he starts to climb the tree, Lovergirl goes further and further up. She'll fall before Cato reaches her.

The branch beneath Cato cracks, and he starts flailing around trying to regain his footing. He doesn't though, and he falls to the ground. For a second, I think he's broken his neck, but he gets up and mutters a few swear words.

Glimmer attempts to climb next. Lovergirl is about eight feet up now. I would tell Glimmer it's useless, the branches that high won't hold her weight, but then again, I don't think I will.

The branch beneath Glimmer starts to crack. She stops climbing and attempts to shoot a few arrows at Lovergirl, but they don't come anywhere close to her. One of them lodges itself in a tree next to her, though. She grabs it and waves it teasingly above us. With a huff, Glimmer climbs down the tree. We form a huddle and try to decide what to do next.

"Someone else could try to climb," Glimmer suggests.

"No, the branches won't hold up," Cato says.

"We could burn the tree down," Marvel suggests.

"No, she'd climb down before it would kill her," Cato says.

"Chop the tree down?" Marvel asks.

"With what!" Cato shouts. "The sword won't cut through the tree, or the knives, or the spears."

"An axe?" Marvel asks.

"We don't have an axe you idiot!" Cato shouts.

"Oh, let her stay up there. It's not like she's going anywhere. We'll deal with her in the morning," Loverboy says harshly. Everyone seems to agree on this. Kyla starts a fire while the rest of us eat what little food we have in our packs. I wonder what Axel will do. We did say we'd be back by night. Who cares? We've got a tribute to kill.

After we eat, the Capitol anthem plays. No deaths today. The anthem fades with a dramatic flourish, and the seal disappears. We lean in around the fire and try to formulate a plan to kill her.

"One of us could go back to camp, get an ax, and we can chop down the tree while she's asleep," Marvel says.

"Would you just let go of the chopping down the tree idea?" I snap.

"We could get Axel to make some sort of contraption and blow her up," Glimmer says.

"There aren't any mines around here, dummy," I say. She shoots me a dirty look. We come up with a million other ideas of how not to kill Lovergirl. After a while, we just start seeing who can come up with the dumbest idea.

"Okay, we seriously need to come up with a plan," Cato says. For a moment, we're all quiet, thinking. What can we do? We can't climb the tree, we can't burn the tree, we can't cut down the tree. There's got to be something.

"Why don't we just wait here? She'll have to come down for food or water eventually or else she'll starve," Loverboy says. We all nod in agreement.

"Good point. We can send people back to camp occasionally for supplies," Cato says.

"Should someone go back now?" Kyla asks.

"No, we're good on supplies for now," Cato says. "Someone can go back tomorrow."

We get ready to sleep. I take grudgingly take first watch even though I'm exhausted. The sky is completely dark except for the dim light from the stars. I'm grateful for the light given off by the dying fire. Occasionally, I'll hear a rustle in the branches. It's only animals, though. In a way, I kind of hope a tribute will come out so I can give the audience some entertainment. Of course, they're probably in the edge of their seat with Lovergirl treed. I really hate those sick people that actually enjoy watching us die. I hope that one day, the Capitol kids will have to fight in the games. See how they like it then.

After a few hours, I switch off with Glimmer. It doesn't take long for me to fall asleep.

I wake up to a loud buzzing noise and a searing pain on my neck. My eyes fly open. The only thing I can see is tracker jackers. Everywhere. I hear a scream from Glimmer and Cato yelling for us to run. I take off in what I think is the direction of camp, getting a few more stings in the process. The effect of the venom is immediate. I start to feel dizzy. How much longer before the hallucinations start? Another stinger enters my leg and I fall on the ground. The pain is excruciating. A cannon goes off. I think, anyway. Could it be a hallucination? The ground starts to turn into a black liquid. I force myself to stand up and run, splashing sticky black stuff all over me. All of the sudden, giant black birds swarm over me. One dives down and shoves it's beak into me. I scream. Is this real? I don't know, I don't know! All of the birds converge on me, pecking away at any part of my body they can. I scream at the top of my lungs and make a futile attempt at batting the screeching birds away. A bird pecks at my eyes. My vision becomes spotted with purple, green, blue, and yellow. For a moment, everything becomes completely white. Then, I black out.


	17. No More Us

**Sorry if this chapter seems sort of rushed... **

Hallucinations aren't the only effect of tracker jacker stings. Horrific nightmares are, too. I wake up repeatedly, or at least I think I do, only to find a much worse horror. Beetles that gnaw on my flesh, flames burning me alive, some sort of greenish liquid that burns my skin. And those are some of the mild ones. It's impossible to tell the difference between being asleep and being awake, between reality and hallucination. For all I know, I'm already dead. I always pictured death as peaceful, but maybe I'm wrong. Maybe death is just an endless series of horrors.

Fortunately, I wake up to the bright light of noon, the shade of the cornucopia, Cato looking down in me. My eyes dart around, making sure this isn't going to turn into a hallucination. It doesn't though. I'm alive, and still in the arena.

"Clove?" Cato softly.

"How long was I out?" I ask.

"I'm not sure, about two days I think. You got the worst of the stings," he says. "I was so worried. Sometimes you would wake up screaming and whenever I'd try to talk to you didn't know who I was. I didn't think you'd make it."

"Well, I did," I say. "Who died?"

"Glimmer and Kyla that I'm aware of. More probably did while we were knocked out," he says. I look around and the only other person I see is Marvel.

"Where's Loverboy?" I ask.

"I cut him on the thigh after he saved Katniss's life," he says.

"He what!" I shout, sitting straight up. Cato makes me lay back down again.

"Yeah, I went back to try to finish her off, and Loverboy was telling her to run. He's not dead. Yet. He'll be gone in a few days from infection though," he says.

"Well, that's good, I guess. So, you me and Marvel," I say.

"And Axel," he says. He points at something. I look over, and there's a giant pyramid of food before me.

"Whoa," I say. "He did all that?"

"Yep. I would've gotten rid of him, but he's the only one that knows how to get to the food, so we kind of need him around," he says

"True," I say.

"Hey, kid! Get me a bottle of water, a loaf of bread, and some peanut butter!" Cato shouts. Axel nods and hops carefully to the pyramid. He grabs the things Cato told him to and hops back out. He tosses the food over to us. Cato tears off a chunk of bread, dips it in the peanut butter, and hands it to me. The bread is almost rock hard, but it tastes halfway decent with the peanut butter.

"We got medicine." He pulls out silver jar. "I already put some of it on your stings. You probably won't need more."

"Thanks," I say.

"Hey, what's that?" Marvel asks, pointing towards the woods. A column of smoke is coming from the trees.

"Let's go find out," I say.

"No, you should stay here and rest," Cato says.

"I want to be there if it's Lovergirl. Now help me stand up," I say.

"Are you sure?" Cato asks.

"Yes, I'm sure," I say. Cato reluctantly helps me to my feet. My joints are stiff, but I ignore it. We take off towards the fire. I doubt that it's Lovergirl. She wouldn't be this stupid. But I'm not going to waste an opportunity to kill a tribute.

After running for just a few minutes, we reach the fire. There's no one there though.

"Who do you think it was?" Marvel asks.

"I don't know. Lovergirl and the boy from eleven don't seem dumb enough to do this. Red-head seems too smart, too. And there's no way Loverboy could've come all the way out here. Who does that leave?" Cato says.

"That little girl from eleven, and the boy from ten, I think," Marvel says.

"I'd bet on the boy from ten," Cato says.

"What if it's a trap?" I ask. The deafening sound of an explosion fills the air. Marvel shouts something over the booming.

"WHAT?" I shout as loudly as I can.

"THE MINES!" Marvel shouts. Just as quickly as they started, the explosions stop. Cato's face has turned bright red.

"I'm going to KILL HIM!" he shouts. He takes off running towards the cornucopia. Marvel and I follow slightly behind.

We reach the cornucopia. Where the food pyramid should've been is a huge crater. Marvel and I are pretty angry, but Cato... I never thought people actually rip their hair out and pound the ground when they're angry.

"I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS!" He shouts. "YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO BE GUARDING! HOW COULD YOU LET THIS HAPPEN!" He storms over to Axel, who is literally shaking, and snaps his neck. The cannon goes off. Cato is still screaming curse words at the ground, the sky, the woods. I try to calm him down, but I'm not sure if he even hears me.

"Cato, whoever did this must have died. The cannon just got muffled by the explosion," I say as calmly as possible. This seems to calm him down a little bit. At least he stops ripping his hair out.

"Look!" Marvel says. He points to another pillar of smoke further into the woods.

"Let's go," Cato says. We run as fast as we can into the woods so we don't end up loosing the tribute who started the fire.

We're still too late, though. The only sign that anyone was here is the giant mound of flaming sticks.

"This has to be a trap," I say. Cato and Marvel nod in agreement.

"What can we do about it?" Marvel asks. We think for a minute. What can we do? An idea is starting to form in my mind.

"Okay, so what if one of us goes back to the first fire, one of us stays here, and the other goes ahead to see if there's a third, and if there is, sets a trap for whoever is starting them," I say. Cato and Marvel consider this for a moment.

"That just might work," Marvel says. "I know how to set a trap with a net."

"Do you have a net?" Cato asks.

"Yes," Marvel says.

"Then you go ahead and start looking for another fire. I'll go back to the first one," Cato says. Marvel nods and starts moving forward. Cato turns to face me.

"Are you going to be okay alone?" Cato asks. I give him a light slap on the arm.

"Of course I will. I'm not the only one who's trained for this," I say.

"Okay, then. See you later." He starts walking back to the other fire. I sit down, leaning my back against a tree. I hope it was Lovergirl who set this up. It occurs to me that if this is a trap, there must have been two people in on it. Perfect. Surely if Marvel catches one of the tributes, the other will come to their aide. Two birds with one stone.

The forest is so peaceful. The birds all sing a sweet tune, the sky is just starting to darken, the air is so clean. My eyelids start to feel heavy. I close them for a minute, and soon fall into a light sleep.

I wake up to the sound of a cannon. Panic washes over me. Was it Cato? Marvel? Please don't let it have been Cato. Another canon fires shortly afterward. Who could it have been? I hope it was Lovergirl.

It's completely dark now. I must have missed the death toll. It doesn't look like anyone is going to be returning to the fire, so I start making my way back to the cornucopia. The second fire was about ten minutes away from the cornucopia. About halfway back, I reach the first fire Cato isn't there. Oh no... Maybe it was him that died. I never should've let him go off on his own. Now he might be gone. Then again, he might have just gone back to the cornucopia. I start to run. Please don't let him be dead, please don't let him be dead.

I get to the plain, and to my relief, Cato is standing there looking into to pit where our food used to be. His back is to me. I decide to use this opportunity to have some fun. As quietly as I can, I run up behind him and jump on his back.

"Gotcha!" I yell. He pulls me off of his back and pins me to the ground, sword pointing down at my heart. When he sees it's me, he moves his sword and lets me up.

"Don't do that, Clove! I almost killed you!" he shouts while I laugh hysterically. "It's not funny! I was about to stab you!"

"Hate to break it to you, but it actually was pretty funny," I say. He shakes his head.

"We need to move away from here," I say.

"Why?" I ask.

"Everyone knows that someone has a camp here, so someone might try to attack us," he says.

"They'll probably think we died in the explosion," I say. "No one will attack."

"Well, I'm leaving," he says.

"What about Marvel?" I ask.

"I think it's time we broke off from him anyway. There's only six people left," he says.

"I'm not leaving," I say.

"Fine. Then I guess... I guess this is goodbye," he says.

"It's probably better this way," I whisper. Cato pulls me into a quick hug before walking into the woods. I can't believe this. He hesitates to leave me at a fire, but be leaves me at the cornucopia without thinking twice. I watch him until he's disappeared into the woods. He never turns back. Without realizing it, a tear slides down my cheek. I trudge back to the cornucopia and sit just inside of it so the cameras can't see my tears. Just to be safe, I rest my head on my knees so if the cameras are watching me, it will just look like I'm sleeping. I let the tears flow freely down my cheek. I try to tell myself that I don't need Cato. If he's willing to just abandon me, than I'm better off alone. Plus, what would I do if it came down to just us? One of us will probably find a way to die somehow. Hopefully it will be me. No matter what I tell myself, I can't convince myself that I don't want to live without Cato.

I must have fallen asleep at some point, because the next time I open my eyes, it's probably about noon. My stomach rumbles. I fish around in my backpack for food, but all I find are my knives. I force myself to get up and find some food and water. Wait a minute, I don't have any iodine. Great. No water. I hope I have some good sponsors.

As if reading my thoughts, a parachute drifts down beside me. Attached to it is a bottle of iodine. Oh, come on. Couldn't they have just sent water? There has to be a reason. A bottle of water might only last me a day, maybe two if I'm lucky. A bottle of iodine will allow me to purify water. I've got an unlimited supply of water right beside me. I tilt my head towards the sky and say "Thank you." I'm not sure why I do, but I feel like I should thank whoever gave the money for me to get this. It will probably save my life. I take my water bottle to the lake, fill it up, put a few drops of the iodine in it, wait thirty minutes, and drink the whole thing. I repeat the process two or three times until my thirst is quenched. I didn't realize how thirsty I was. The next thing I need to do is find food. I turn to tell Cato to come with me, but I realize he isn't there. You don't need him, I tell myself.

I find a bush with some berries on it. I start to form a pile on the ground next to me. I'm starving, so I pick a handful to eat. A bird lands on the bush and plucks a berry off of the bush. Just as I lift the berries to my mouth, the bird drops dead. I take one of the berries and squish it so I can see its inside. Bright red. Nightlock. I drop the berries I had in my hand. How could I have been so stupid! I know better than to eat berries without checking to see what kind they are first! Stupid, stupid, stupid! Without meaning to, I think, Cato would've checked.

I should've gone with him! Why do I have to be so stubborn? It wouldn't have been that bad to live in the woods. Why did I even want to stay at the cornucopia anyway? There's nothing there except an empty gold horn and a giant crater. But why did Cato want to go to the woods? It's not like it would make a difference where we have camp.

It's time I face the truth though.

There's no more us.


	18. Two Victors

**Sorry I haven't updated in a while! **

**The next chapter will be the feast and therefore, the last chapter.**

**Please vote in my poll to decide whose POV my next story will be on! **

Later that night, the Capitol seal appears in the sky. The first face to appear is Marvel's. It's a shame he died, but he had to eventually. I expect the next face to be lovergirl's but it's not. It's the little girl from eleven, Rue. I feel a pang of guilt as her face fades from the sky. I know she had to die, but eleven... that's just to young to die. The anthem ends and the sky goes dark. Only six left. Loverboy will die soon, hopefully Lovergirl will follow soon. Then who'd be left? Me, Cato, the girl from five and the boy from eleven. I could take the girl from five, but the boy from eleven... there's no way I could take him. Especially if it came down to hand-to-hand combat. Yet another reason I should've stayed with Cato. I force thoughts of Cato out of my head. I will not let love make me weak. Or weaker, I should say. Cato probably hasn't thought about me at all.

I walk back to the cornucopia and try to go back to sleep, but I can't. I admit. I miss Cato. A lot.

Trumpets blare through the arena. Must be a feast or something.

"Attention, tributes! We have a slight change in the rules," the voice of Claudius Templesmith shouts. A rule change? This is weird. "There can be two victors if they are from the same district." What? "I repeat, two tributes can win if the are both from the same district. Good luck, and may the odds be ever in your favor."

It takes a second for the full effect of his words to set in. Two tributes from the same district can win.

Cato and I could win.

Together.

Without thinking twice, I run into the forest. I have to find him. I have to. I call his name as loudly as I dare, but I get no response. Where is he? I know he went in this direction, but who knows how far he went. I call his name again. Still, no response.

Suddenly, I'm lifted off the ground. I start to scream and kick wildly, but whoever, or whatever, it is puts a hand over my mouth. My attacker pins me to the ground. In the faint moon-light, I can just make out his blonde hair and icy blue eyes.

Cato.

I slap him in the face.

"Hey! What was that for?" he asks.

"For scaring me half to death," I say.

"Ahh, sweet revenge," he says. I narrow my eyes at him. He releases me, and I throw my arms around him. "Geez, talk about bipolar," he mutters.

"I'm sorry I left you," I whisper in his ear.

"No, I'm sorry I left you," he says. I pull away from our embrace.

"I'll stay in the woods," I say. He stands up and offers me his hand. I take it, and he pulls me to my feet.

"I'll take you to my camp," he says.

"Oh, so you have a camp?" I ask.

"Not really a camp, more like a place where I keep my sleeping bag," he says. I shrug, and follow him through the woods.

A few minutes later, he stops. We're in the middle of a group of trees that will conceal us well. It's probably the best camp we could get.

"Welcome to home sweet home," Cato says. He walks over to his sleeping bag and crawls in. He motions for me to lay becide him, so I do. It feels good to have him close again. I close my eyes. "Clove," he says.

"What?" I ask.

"You're shivering. Do you want to get in the sleeping bag?" he asks.

"You've lost your mind," I say. I am cold, though.

"There are certain lines you can cross in a life or death situation. I don't want you to freeze to death."

"Fine." I crawl into the sleeping bag. There's barely enough room for the two of us, but somehow we both fit. I will admit, it is nice to be so close to him. Not _that _way, in fact, it's a bit uncomfortable, but it's a lot warmer. I fall asleep happy for the first time in the games. Happy being with Cato again, happy knowing that there's a chance that I might make it out of here with Cato.

The next day, we focus on finding food. Cato is pretty good with edible plants, so I let him focus on that while I hunt for meet. We're never out of each other's sight, for fear that one of us might die. We have to make it out of here together. If we don't make it out together, then neither of us makes it out. Or at least I wouldn't get out if Cato dies. If I die, I don't know what Cato will do. Will he fight to bring district two pride, or will he die with me? I hope he'll fight. Scratch that. I hope it never comes down to that.

A couple hours later, I've killed enough squirrels to supply us for a few days, and Cato has gathered a good amount of berries and wild plants. We light a fire and cook the meat while snacking on berries. I'm reminded of how I almost ate nightlock. I consider telling Cato, but knowing him, he'd probably freak out and feel guilty about leaving me, which is the third-last thing I'd want to happen. Third to me dying and him dying.

The meat cooks up fairly quickly. I'm sick of squirrel and berries. I think Cato is, too. I wish sponsors would give us some food. I wonder why they haven't. It's either A: Enobaria and Lyza haven't sent it because we don't need it, or B: Loverboy and Lovergirl have stolen all the sponsors. It could be either, but I'm betting on A. Or at least I'm hoping it's A. We'll need something eventually, and if Lover boy and girl have all the sponsors... we're in trouble.

"Maybe we should try to hunt down Katniss and Peeta," I suggest.

"Na. We'll deal with them later. I just want to spend the day here," he says.

"And do what?" I ask. He shrugs.

"Just stay here. With you," he says. I blush, momentarily forgetting that we can be in love now. We don't have to hide it knowing one of us will die. He lays down on the dirt and I lay down with him, my head resting on his chest. I close my eyes, trying to remember this one moment. The moment I let myself fall in love.

After a while, I fall asleep. For once, I have dreams about a world where there are no dangers of any kind, just fields of wildflowers where Cato and I lay with each other just like we've been doing almost all day forever. No worries, no games, no sadness, hurt, or anger, just me and him.

I wake up feeling well rested for once. It looks to be well past noon. I turn my head enough to see Cato's eyes. Our faces are so close, I can see the streaks of deep blue running through the icy blue of his eyes. He smiles a little bit, and I do, too. I have to wonder if he was watching me while I slept.

"You were smiling in your sleep," he says, almost as a question. I'm sure my cheeks turn bright red.

"I was having nice dreams," I say casually.

"About what?" he asks.

"About a world without danger, just fields of wildflowers. And it was just you and me," I say. "It's silly, I know."

"No, it's not," he says. The smile on his lips says he thinks otherwise.

"You should sleep," I say. He reluctantly puts his head down and closes his eyes. Within minutes, he's asleep. He did way more than his share of guard last night. I've always heard that people look younger in their sleep. I never believed it, until now. The boy I see now doesn't look to be over sixteen, despite his height. I'm not sure what it is. Maybe it's that he looks relaxed, more at ease. I feel rude staring at him, but I can't take my eyes off of him. I could see myself spending the rest of my life with him. Getting married, having kids... _You have to make it out of the arena, first, _I remind myself, but I push the thought to the back of my head.

A couple hours later, when the sky is already getting dark, Cato wakes up.

"Were you watching me sleep?" he asks.

"No," I say a bit too quickly. "Maybe." he smiles a bit.

"It's fine, I watched you sleep, too," he says. "It's true what they say. You do look younger when you sleep."

"Yeah, I figured that out, too," I say. His expression turns serious.

"Clove, I want you to promise me something," he says.

"What?" I ask.

"If I die, you have to fight. You have to win," he says. Why is he asking me this?

"I would promise you, but you're not going to die. So it's kind of pointless," I say.

"You don't know that," he says. "Why do you think they changed the rules?" I have to think about this for a moment.

"Loverboy and Lovergirl," I say.

"And why do you think they'd change the rules unless they wanted them to win?" I don't know what to say. He's right. "They're probably just waiting for an opportunity to get rid of us."

"If you think we're both going to die, then why do you want me to fight them?"

"Because you can outsmart them. You can find a way to win. I know you can."

"If I can find a way to win, then we both can."

"Just promise me, okay?"

"Fine, I promise."

We don't say anything for a while. Not until th Capitol seal appears. No one has died.

"How long would you give it before they sending an attack?" I ask.

"Not long. They're probably looking to end the games, so possibly tomorrow," he says. I hope they do a feast. Then we can get some real food.

Before going to sleep, I eat a piece of cold squirrel and a couple berries. Like last night, Cato and I sleep in the same sleeping bag. I want to take first watch, but Cato insists on taking it. I reluctantly agreem but make him promise to wake me up as soon as he gets even the slightest bit tired. As I'm falling asleep, I feel his hand gently caress my face. I fall asleep with the slightest hint of a smile on my lips.


	19. First and Last

**I apologize that some of the quotes do not match up with the book, but I don't have a copy of it right now.**

** Like I said in the last chapter, this will be the final chapter :'( Hope it doesn't disappoint!**

Cato wakes me up for watch after a while. Everything is dark, there's barely even any moonlight. Only the stars provide a faint light. I remember a night a long time ago, when I was thirteen and Mari was seven, when I taught her about constellations.

_"You see those over there," I say, pointing to a cluster of stars._

_ "Yeah," she says._

_ "That's the big dipper."_

_ "What's a dipper?"_

_ "It's something they used a long time ago to get water." I search the sky for a second, trying to find another constellation to show her. I finally find the one called Orion. "See that one." _

_ "Mmhmm."_

_ "That one is called Orion. He was an archer. You can always find him by finding the three stars in a row that make his belt."_

_ "Who found these constellations?"_

_ "I don't know. People a long, long time ago."_

_ "Oh." For a minute, we're quiet as I search the sky, but it's Mari that speaks first. "See those." She points to a formation of stars that form a smiley face. "Let's call it smiley." I laugh a bit._

_ "Okay, smiley it is."_

That's what I see now, as I look into the stars. The small, cluster of stars forming a smiley face. I can't help but smile at the memory. I wonder what Mari is doing now. Is she watching the stars? Can she see our constellation? Is she watching the games? Is she asleep? Or is she training? I guess I'll never know.

Slowly, the stars disappear and are replaced by the faint light of the morning, taking our little constellation away. Cato wakes up at what I guess to be eight o'clock. We eat a small breakfast of squirrel and greens. Today, we're going to go search for the other tributes, specifically Lovergirl and Loverboy. I bet Lovergirl has Loverboy tied up in a tree somewhere trying to keep his heart going. Poor Lovergirl. She must realize that her efforts are futile. I bet Loverboy will be dead by the end of the day.

The gamemakers are probably preparing to launch some sort of attack on us. There haven't been any bloody deaths since Marvel and Rue, so the audience must be terribly bored. I jump every time a twig snaps, thinking it must be a mutt of some sort. I shudder at the thought of what kind of terrible creature they might send after us.

Before we hunt, we go to the lake and refill our water supply. I sure am glad I got that iodine. We'd be in a lot of trouble without it. As cold as it was last night, it's twice as hot today. We both drink at least three bottles of water. Even after we've had our share of water, we stay by the lake.

"Cato, we really should get going," I say after we've been at the lake for at least an hour and a half.

"Okay," he says. He stands up and offers me his hand. I take it, but instead of helping me up, he flings me into the water.

"Hey!" I shout, dragging him into the water, too. He splashes the water in my face. I splash him back. We start splashing each other and laughing, knowing good and well that we're pretty much asking for someone to attack us. Neither of us cares though. We can take them.

After splashing around for about fifteen minutes, we decide to get back to hunting. It doesn't take too long for our clothes to dry.

We go back to the place where we had seen the red-haired girl a couple of days ago, but there's no sign of her. Not even the hole we found. She's a sly one. I wouldn't be surprised if she made it to the final three. She'll go down easily though. From what I've seen of her, she prefers flight over fight, and when it comes time for her to fight, she won't stand a chance.

"Where do you think Lovergirl is?" Cato asks.

"In a tree with Loverboy," I say. "Probably begging him to keep his heart beating." I snicker at the thought of Lovergirl pleading for Loverboy to stay with her. She'll be heartbroken when he dies.

"What's so funny?" he asks.

"Nothing," I say.

After walking for a couple more hours, it's clear that we're not going find any of the other tributes, so we go back to our little camp and eat the remaining greens and a couple pieces of squirrel. When will the gamemakers do something to force us together? It's got to be soon.

As if on cue, trumpets blare through the arena. Another rule change? Or a feast?

"Attention tributes! There will be a feast tomorrow at the cornucopia, and we plan on being very... generous hosts." Cato and I look at each other. There's a glimmer of excitement in his eyes. "Now, I know that some of you may be turning our offer down already, but this will be no ordinary feast. There is something each of you desperately need. For many of you, it may mean the difference between life and death. We will be providing that item at the feast at dawn. Good luck, and may the odds be ever in your favor."

"Are we going?" Cato asks.

"Duh, of course. But what is it that we need desperately?" I ask.

"I don't know... shampoo?"

"Shampoo?"

"Yeah. You're hair is a mess!"

"I could say the same about you. But seriously, what do we need?" Cato shrugs.

"I guess we'll find out."

We spend the rest of the day formulating a plan for the feast. The plan is for me to grab the bag and, hopefully, take out red-head. Then, Cato will come in and take out the boy from eleven. As for Lovergirl, well, whoever catches her kills her.

"If you get her, give the audience a good show," Cato says.

"Oh, I will. Her death will be slow and painful," I say.

"And say something about Rue," he adds.

"Why?" I ask.

"They were allies. That's how Marvel got killed. He killed Rue, Katniss killed him."

"How do you know that?"

"Red-head doesn't seem like the type to have allies, neither does eleven. So that only leaves Rue as her possible ally.

"How do you know she had an ally?"

"It must've been a trap. They wanted to distract us from the food, so one of them could blow it up. The other one lit the fires."

"I guess it makes sense. What about Loverboy?"

"Nature will take care of him. He'll be as good as gone by tomorrow night."

After the day's death toll is shown, which, unsurprisingly, is none, we split up to get ready for the feast. Cato is reluctant to leave me, but I promise him that I'll be fine. I'm worried about how he'll do against the boy from eleven, but I trust him. Plus, if he needs help, I can always help him out. I'll be done by the time Eleven shows up. Unless I get Katniss, in which case... Cato's on his own. I know Cato wants to kill Katniss, but I sort of hope I'll be the one to kill her. I've got her entire death planned in my head. I can't wait to see the fear in her eyes as she slowly bleed to death. Maybe if I'm feeling nice, I'll kill her after I cut her up, but if I'm not, I'll just let her bleed. Slowly.

I find a good hiding place with a good view of the cornucopia. I think about sleeping, but I'm scared I'll miss the feast if I do. Then again, if I don't sleep, I'll be tired and I might not be at the top of my game. Sleep, don't sleep, sleep, don't sleep.

The sound of something landing beside me makes me jump a little bit. It's a parachute. Attached to it is clear bottle with some sort of liquid inside of it. There's also a note with it.

_Drink before the feast_

_ -L_

I'm guessing this is some sort of energy drink. Perfect. I hope Cato got some, too. We'll both need as much energy as possible for tomorrow.

The night passes too slowly, but eventually, the sun peeks over the trees. I drink the contents of the bottle, which have a strange, fruity taste, and immediately feel more energized. I arrange some of my knives inside of my jacket while keeping some out to throw. I'm excited about the feast, about finally getting to do something, but I'm also worried about what might go wrong. What if Lovergirl kills me first? Or eleven? What if I end up in a confrontation with him?

Before I can worry about it more, a hole opens up in the ground and a table with four bags rises up. Before I can even prepare myself to run, red-head bursts out of the cornucopia, grabs her bag, and disappears. Great! I missed my opportunity! Cato's going to be so angry! I push my anger away and prepare to do my second job, to get the bag. I run onto the field, knives in hand. At the same time, Lovergirl runs onto the field. I send a knife flying her way, but it misses. A sharp pain shoots through my left arm. I look to see that Lovergirl hit me with an arrow. I have to stop for a second to pull the arrow out and assess the damage. The arrow went pretty deep, it may be a problem later, but it shouldn't slow me down too much now. Luckily, I throw with my right arm. I throw a knife at her head. It grazes her forehead and gives her a pretty good cut above her eyebrow. It doesn't take long for me to catch up with her and knock her to the ground. She's already got her tiny little pack around her wrist. She puts up a good fight. For a minute, I think that it might be me that dies instead of her, but I pin her to the ground before long. She stares me in the eyes, trying to look brave, but there is fear written all over her face.

"What's in the bag, twelve? Medicine for Loverboy?" I hiss. "Too bad he'll never get it."

"No, he's out there hunting Cato now," she says. "Peeta!"

I look from side to side. Is he really out there? No. He couldn't be. "Liar. Cato knows where he cut him. You've probably got him tied up in a tree while you try to keep his heart going." She tries to bite my hand. "It's over, twelve. We're going to kill you just like we killed your pathetic little ally. What was her name? Rue?" Anger replaces the fear on her face, and I know Cato was right about them being allies. "And we'll just let nature take care of Loverboy. Sound good?" I smile evilly as I open up my jacket and select a small, delicate knife with a cruel curve. I wipe the blood from her face with my jacket. "Now, where do we start..." I look at her face like it's a piece of wood even though I already have everything planned out. Just building suspense. "How about your lips. Won't be needing those anymore. Want to blow your boyfriend one last kiss?" She spits a glob of saliva and blood in my face. I wipe it off quickly and set to work with a new determination. The blade of my knife has just touched her lip when I'm lifted off of her. For a second, I think it's Cato coming to steal the glory, but as I get a closer look at my attacker, I realize it's eleven. He holds me in the air like I'm as light as a feather while I scream at the top of my lungs and flail around like a fish out of water.

"You kill that little girl?" he asks, his voice is filled with fury.

"No, no," I say.

"You said her name. You kill her?" he shouts.

"No," I repeat. I look down at eleven's other hand and to my horror, I see a rock the size of a loaf of bread. Oh, no. No, no, no. "CATO!" I scream. "CATO!" I barely hear my name being called in the distance. Eleven brings the rock up. No, no, no! Everything seems to go into slow motion. The rock slowly comes closer and closer to my head. This is it. I'm going to die. The rock hits my head, sending a wave of pain throughout my whole body. The world becomes blurry. I feel a vague sensation of falling and hitting the ground. A moan escapes my lips. My head is throbbing. I try to call Cato's name, but it just comes out as another moan. I can just barely make out Thresh running away and Lovergirl running away, too. A figure approaches me. I can just barely see that it's Cato. He kneels beside me and pulls me into his arms

"You stay with me now. Stay with me!" he says. I moan. "Please, Clove, stay with me. You can't die now, you have to win. We have to win!" His eyes glisten a bit. Is he crying?

"Win." I manage to croak out.

"No, we're winning this together," he says. I try to shake my head, but it just makes my head throb more.

"Mari." I say. I want to say more, but I can't find the strength to.

"I'll take care of her," he says. There's one more thing I have to say. Three words. That's all. I've got to do it.

"I... love... you." I feel something wet a my arm. A tear?

"I love you, too," he says, his voice shaky. The world is starting to fade. I can barely see Cato's face coming closer to mine.

The last thing I remember is his lips on mine.

**Just so you know, the chapter title is referring to Clove getting her first and last kiss. Hope you enjoyed the story! Please vote in my poll! If you're a guest, post a review with your vote on whose POV my next story should be in. Thanks again to everyone who's read/favorited/followed/reviewed this story! Check out my other stories, "Let The Games Begin Again" and "The Fear Games"**


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